by Dr Marco Stief with Dr Anna Giedke, Dipl. jur. Selina Stachowitz
With effect from 1 January 2023, new versions of the R&D- and Specialisation-BER should have entered into force; this was delayed by at least 6 months to consider the feedback from the public consultation. The article deals with the draft versions published on 1 March 2022. The most important innovation is the explicit inclusion of very early R&D phases in the draft R&D-BER. Problematic in this context is the new requirement to exempt R&D agreements between competitors in innovation only where at least three comparable competing R&D efforts exist. In contrast, the extension of the exemption possibilities under the Specialisation BER is to be welcomed.
