Trademarks and other marks and labels
Trademarks and business designations are key elements of corporate economic success. Sometimes they are the most valuable assets.
The experienced staff of our trademark department handle the application for registration and the administration of your German, international and Community trademarks. We are on hand to help to decide whether and how to protect your marks and optimize your trademark strategy. Upon request, we investigate whether third-party rights are affected. Read here why filing trademarks makes sense and researching for prior trademarks is crucial.
Owing to our close relations with specialist colleagues throughout the world, we can also arrange for trademark registration and protection in foreign countries where it is impossible to use the more cost-saving registration of an IR trademark.
If we are commissioned to administer and monitor your trademarks, we ensure broad protection. We therefore provide continuous monitoring of trademark applications by third parties. Moreover, we supervise whether the time limits and formal requirements imposed by German and foreign authorities are observed.
In opposition, revocation and cancellation proceedings, we represent you before the German Patent and Trademark Office (Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt) as well as before the German Federal Patent Court (Bundespatentgericht). If the proceedings concern a Community trademark, we represent your interests before the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). Moreover, we also take on your representation before the European Court of First Instance and the European Court of Justice.
If there is an infringement of your trademark rights, we rely on our extensive judicial experience: If the infringer fails to react to the cease-and-desist letter, we apply for a preliminary injunction to stop the infringement immediately. In cases of urgency, e.g. during a trade fair, this can be a matter of just a few hours. The assertion of claims for damages and the clarification of fundamental legal issues take place during the main proceedings. In the case of trademark piracy, we arrange for the seizure and destruction of the counterfeited products and assist the police and the public prosecutor in imposing sanctions under criminal law. We endeavour to detect, locate and prevent the counterfeiting and plagiarizing of products in advance by way of seizure at the national borders.
If claims are asserted against you for alleged trademark infringement, we either defend your interests in court or reach an economically reasonable solution in out-of-court settlement negotiations.
