X. Civil Senate of the Federal Court of Justice

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The 10th Civil Senate is a panel of the Federal Court of Justice . It is the tenth of the thirteen senates (excluding special senates such as the cartel senate or the senate for agricultural matters ) that deal with civil matters.

He is mainly responsible for patent law , travel contract law and gift law. On September 1, 2019, responsibility for public procurement law was transferred to the newly created XIII. Civil Senate passed over.

occupation

The Senate is currently (as of June 2, 2020) composed as follows:

Chairperson

No. Name (life data) Beginning of the term of office Term expires
1 Karl Nastelski (1899–1972) January 1, 1963 ( 1 ) September 30, 1967
2 Karl Spreng (1904–1982) October 1, 1967 ( 2 ) June 30, 1972
3 Wilhelm Trüstedt (1908–1995) July 28, 1972 June 30, 1976
4th Werner Ballhaus (1920–1993) 18th August 1976 August 31, 1985
5 Karl Bruchhausen (1928–1994) 2nd September 1985 March 31, 1993
6th Rüdiger Rogge (* 1936) April 1, 1993 October 31, 2001
7th Klaus-Jürgen Melullis (* 1944) Nov 12, 2001 March 31, 2009
8th Uwe Scharen (* 1945) April 1, 2009 August 31, 2010
9 Peter Meier-Beck (* 1955) September 6, 2010 17th September 2019
10 Klaus Bacher (* 1964) 2nd June 2020 -

1 as Chairman of the Ia Civil Senate
2 until February 29, 1968 as Chairman of the Ia Civil Senate

Other former members

The Senate's judges included the former federal judges / judges at the BGH Hans Bock , Otto Löscher , Albrecht Spengler (federal judge since 1959, died in 1967), Werner Jungbluth (1967 President of the Federal Patent Court ), Wilhelm Claßen (since 1961, then still I. Civil Senate, until 1980), Karl Heinz Schneider (since 1963, died 1971), Richard Ochmann (from 1970 to 1986), Erich Häußer (later President of the German Patent Office ), Helmut Bendler (from 1972 to 1976), Ernst Windisch ( since 1975 to 1986), Hans Gerd Hesse (since 1976, died 1985), Otto Brodeßer (from 1976 to 1990, most recently deputy chairman), Hans-Joachim von Albert (from 1978 to 1989), Falk Freiherr von Maltzahn (from 1985 to 2000), Bernhard Jestaedt (since 1986 to 2004, since 1993 deputy chairman), Siegfried Broß (since 1986, later judge at the Federal Constitutional Court ), Alfred Keukenschrijver (1996 to the end of 2012, 2011 to 2012 deputy chairman, end of 2 010 temporarily entrusted with the chairmanship of the Xa civil senate), Elisabeth Mühlens (1999 until the end of September 2013), Jochem Gröning (until September 30, 2019), Claus-Dietrich Asendorf (2001 until the end of 2009) and Barbara Ambrosius (from 2004 until the end of 2007) as well as the judge Hans-Peter Greiner who moved to other senates (since 1993; until the end of 2008 VI. Civil Senate ), Wolfgang Kirchhoff (since 2004; changed to the First Civil Senate at the beginning of 2007, now the XIII Civil Senate) and Nikolaus Berger (April 1, 2009 to January 31, 2011). The judges Peter Meier-Beck (from September 6, 2010 to September 17, 2019 Chairman of the Xth Civil Senate, from September 1, 2019 Chairman of the newly created XIII Civil Senate and the Cartel Senate), Alfred Keukenschrijver and Elisabeth Mühlens were in in 2009 and 2010 no longer assigned to the X. Civil Senate, but rather to the Xa Civil Senate, but after its dissolution the two last-named belonged again to the X. Civil Senate until they retired, which also included the Xa Civil Senate member judges Klaus Bacher and Gabriele Schuster (deceased on October 30, 2017). Reiner Lemke was assigned to the Senate from January 1, 2009 to June 30, 2009.

Jurisdiction

According to the BGH's business distribution plan (as of 2019), the Xth Civil Senate (unchanged since 2012) is responsible for:

  1. the legal disputes over patent , utility model and topography protection rights together with contracts about them;
  2. the legal disputes arising from contracts on the use of a secret procedure (so-called know-how ) or on the exclusive exploitation of non-protected commercial products;
  3. the legal disputes in the field of employee inventions;
  4. Legal disputes arising from the Plant Variety Protection Act , unless they are assigned to the 1st Civil Senate (No. 3);
  5. the patent nullity and compulsory licensing matters;
  6. the decisions on legal complaints against decisions of the Federal Patent Court in patent and utility model matters, in topography protection matters and in plant variety protection matters, insofar as the latter are not assigned to the 1st Civil Senate (No. 4);
  7. the claims of a patent attorney and against a patent attorney on the occasion of his professional activity ( Patentanwaltsordnung ) including claims for damages, insofar as they are not assigned to the 1st Civil Senate (No. 8);
  8. the determination of the competent court according to § 36 Abs. 3 ZPO, unless the IX. Civil Senate (No. 7) or the XII. Civil Senate (No. 4) is responsible;
  9. Legal disputes about travel and passenger transport contracts, unless VI. Civil Senate (No. 2) is responsible;
  10. Legal disputes about procurement procedures by public contracting authorities, including decisions in submission procedures in accordance with Section 124 (2) GWB (since September 1, 2019 with the newly created XIII Civil Senate);
  11. Legal disputes about donations (§§ 516 ff BGB), unless the 2nd Civil Senate (No. 1 a and b) is responsible;
  12. the decisions that become necessary before the Senate responsible for handling the matter can be determined.

The decisions on travel and passenger transport contracts (No. 9) meet with public and media interest.

history

The Senate emerged at the beginning of 1963 as the Ia Senate from the division of the former First Civil Senate . This was mainly due to the fact that with the establishment of the Federal Patent Court on July 1, 1961, a new legal remedy (appeal proceedings) was opened to the Federal Court of Justice, which put a heavy burden on it in the early years. The division between the Ia Senate and the Ib Senate was carried out in such a way that the Ia Senate was assigned the technical property rights ( patent , utility model ), the Ib Senate the trademark law (now trademark law ), the registered design - (now design law ) and copyright and competition law . On March 1, 1968, the Ia Senate was named X. Civil Senate , while the Ib Senate has since been named I Civil Senate . Until 1983, the 10th Civil Senate had the additional designation of the Patent Senate , which is still used occasionally today.

The competences of the 10th Civil Senate remained essentially unchanged until 1984. Since then, however, the Senate has been assigned numerous and generally quite heterogeneous additional responsibilities from general civil law.

At the beginning of 2009, the Senate was temporarily divided. The core competencies in the field of commercial legal protection were essentially assigned half of the new Xa civil senate. After the loss of the Xa civil senate on January 1, 2011, the overall responsibilities lie with the (now undivided) Xth civil senate.

particularities

In the patent nullity and compulsory licensing cases, the Xth Civil Senate - quite unusual for the Federal Court of Justice - is the factual instance . The appeal in these proceedings, which is atypical for a supreme federal court , was introduced as early as 1877, at that time still at the Reich Higher Commercial Court , the forerunner of the Reich Court , and has survived without major changes since then. The procedure is only partly based on the Code of Civil Procedure and otherwise follows its own rules. In the majority of the appeal proceedings, the 10th Civil Senate obtained the opinion of an expert ; occasionally there is also an examination of witnesses ; according to the for proceedings that have been pending before the Federal Patent Court since October 1, 2009, the possibility of a new presentation of facts and new factual determinations in the second instance is severely restricted and obtaining an expert opinion has become an exception. Recently, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of appeals in patent nullity cases (which were previously extremely labor-intensive), which has led to a considerable backlog (on November 1, 2008 there were 190 unfinished proceedings out of around 60 incoming cases per year) has increasingly delayed the duration of the proceedings. However, the backlog of open proceedings was reduced in 2009 and 2010 by setting up the Xa civil senate as a temporary auxiliary senate to relieve the burden . What is also noteworthy about these proceedings is that the power of representation is not limited to lawyers admitted to the Federal Court of Justice as is usually the case.

It is also noteworthy that a compulsory license issued by the Federal Patent Court by way of an interim injunction was in effect before the Federal Court of Justice (judgment of July 11, 2017 - X ZB 2/17 - Raltegravir, printed in GRUR 2017, 1017). It is the first compulsory license confirmed by the Federal Court of Justice since its existence.

Scientific staff

The Senate is usually assigned two to three research assistants - the designation “ Hiwi ” is usually assigned despite their high gout (“ auxiliary willing ”) - mostly judges at the regional court or at the federal patent court.

literature

  • Haller, From the work of a judicial expert in patent nullity proceedings before the Federal Court of Justice , GRUR 1985, 653;
  • Hesse, The tasks of the judicial expert in patent nullity proceedings before the Federal Court of Justice , Der Sachverektiven 1983, 149;
  • Rupprecht Knecht (pseudonym), Dying Customs - The Nicholas in the X. Civil Senate , in Herz / Freymann / Vatter (ed.) HIWI 2000, The "only true Festschrift" or: What you always wanted to know about the BGH, Saarbrücken 2000, ISBN 3-935009-01-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Business Distribution Plan 2019 - Civil Senates. Federal Court of Justice, 2019, accessed on May 25, 2019 .
  2. Jump up ↑ The Court - Division of Business - Composition of the Senate - X. Civil Senate. Federal Court of Justice, 2019, accessed on October 2, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Presidium resolution on the division of responsibilities. Federal Court of Justice, August 29, 2019, accessed on August 31, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Presidium resolution on the division of responsibilities. Federal Court of Justice, August 29, 2019, accessed on August 31, 2019 .
  5. ^ A new judge and two new judges at the Federal Court of Justice. In: press release 126/19. Federal Court of Justice, October 1, 2019, accessed on October 2, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Business distribution plan 2012 - Civil Senates. Federal Court of Justice, 2012, accessed on May 25, 2019 .