NATIONAL LAW IMPLEMENTING THE ENFORCEMENT DIRECTIVE

A. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY LAW

The intellectual property rights, as addressed by the Directive, are all codified under the federal statutes governing Austria's respective intellectual property rights (IPRs). The relevant statutes are the Patentgesetz 1970 (Patent Act), the Halbleiterschutzgesetz 1988 (Semiconductor-Protection Act), the Markenschutzgesetz 1970 (Trademark Act) and the Urheberrechtsgesetz 1936 (Copyright Act). No implementation measures were undertaken for either the Musterschutzgesetz (Design Act) or the Gebrauchsmustergesetz (Utility Model Act), as these statutes each apply the relevant provisions of the Patent Act by reference. Consequently, this chapter on Austria contains no references to these acts, and all statements on rights arising out of a patent infringement apply vice versa to these titles.

B. TRANSPOSITION ISSUES

The primary source of information in the legislator's view when implementing the Enforcement Directive are the accompanying materials, which are published regularly along with any new legislation (“non-binding explanatory notes”). In these notes, the legislator took the view that Austrian law, even prior to the introduction of these amendments, already largely complied with measures required under the Enforcement Directive, in particular with regard to Article 6. Nonetheless, some provisions required changes and clarifications to avoid any doubts as to what rights are available.

The adaptions of Austrian law were carried out through two separate legislator acts: Amendment BGBl. I No. 96/2006, entering into force on June 24, 2006, and implementing amendments and new sections to the Patent Act, the Semiconductor-Protection Act, and the Trademark Act; the same is true for the Copyright Amendment 2006 (BGBl. I No. 81/2006) concerning the Copyright Act, entering into force on June 22, 2006.

C. ASSESSMENT REPORTS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION

The assessment report to be conducted by Member States within three years aft er implementation, as prescribed under Article 18 Enforcement Directive, is not publicly available for Austria. However, the Support study for the ex post evaluation and ex ante impact analysis of the IPR Enforcement Directive (IPRED) issued in April 2017 by the European Commission offers some guidance as to the implementation and effects in Austria (and all other EU Member States).