What are the brand protection first steps?
Trademarks
How to gain ownership of your rights?
A trademark is a word, symbol or phrase used in commerce to distinguish your products and services from those of your competitors. It’s what makes your business unique.
We support you to claim ownership of your business’ identity by registering your trademark. This is a crucial first step on the ladder of developing your business. Your trademark makes you recognisable to customers and other businesses, opening doors for development and partnership.
Many people don’t realise that a trademark is geographically limited, meaning it must be protected country by country. We help you negotiate this tricky terrain to ensure you’re registered in the right territories.
Patents and Designs
You may also need to register the appearance of your product and any technology that you have invented:
A patent is the right to exclude others from making, using or selling your invention or solution to a problem.
Design registration protects your rights to the aesthetic appearance of your product or its packaging.
We understand that it can be confusing which of these protections your business needs, and in what combination. We fully analyse your needs so that these pieces fit neatly together like a jigsaw, providing you with full protection and peace of mind.
What is next?
Monitor the market
We create a plan to monitor your brands, designs and inventions that includes official databases, marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, Aliexpress), and social media outlets. With the speed of today’s market, it is more important than ever to have someone looking out for your interests.
Defend your rights
If someone infringes on your intellectual property, we take action immediately. This could be as simple as a cessation request or involve negotiation of a commercial agreement. If necessary, we will act on your behalf to present a civil or criminal suit. Whatever the problem, we keep an open mind to ensure we achieve the best result for you, with minimum stress.
Maintaining your rights
Trademark renewal
Maintenance of your rights is key for them to continue to exist. Renewal is part of maintaining those rights and it is done every 10 years. Partial renewals are also possible
Monetizing your rights
Once you have ownership of these elements, it’s time to get the hard work done: selling the product or service directly or through retailers, and creating partnerships with other brands.
Contracts are live relationships that need to be nurtured and only work when both parties see the benefits. We negotiate and draft contracts on your behalf so that all you have to do is watch your business grow.
How does the registration process look like?
The registration process has four main steps:
a) availability search;
b) application submission;
c) examination, publication and opposition;
d) granting.
Availability search
To avoid legal complications an availability search is recommended. We look for potential conflicts (identical or similar trademark previously registered in the relevant territory) within the official databases, market places and social media channels.
Application submission
We prepare the forms, file it with the relevant authorities and pay the official government fees on your behalf.
Examination, publication and opposition
In the European Union, the relevant authority - the European Intellectual Property Office or EUIPO, review the trademark application to assess if it complies with the legal requirements.
This assessment does not take into account previously applied for or registered identical or similar trademarks. It is the trademark owner responsibility to monitor the market and the published database.
If the trademark application is deemed to comply with all the legal requirements, it is then published in the official European Union trademarks bulletin.
This publication opens a three month opposition period.
The Opposition is the option, owners of a previously registered trademark, who felt that a new trademark application aggrieved their rights, have to oppose its registration.
Granting
Should no opposition be filed within 3 months from the trademark publication or should the opposition be overcome successfully, the trademark is then granted by the European Union Intellectual Property Office.
The whole process from search to registration may take from four to eight months.
The European Union trademark will be valid for a period of 10 yeas from the filing date and may be renewed from up to six months before its expiry date for subsequent periods of ten years.
WARNING:
In recent years, many trademark owners have received letters demanding payment of invoices related to their trademark application.
Please, disregard those letters, since the European Union Intellectual Property Office, based in Alicante, with bank accounts in Spain, does not issue these type of letters. The EUIPO never sends invoices or letters to users requesting direct payment for services.
If you receive a letter with this type of content and you have any questions, please contact us.
Other procedures and appeals
Cancellation for non-use
Once a trademark has been registered for a period of five years, it becomes subject to proving there was a real and effective use within the territory of the European Union.
Use is not a requirement for registration, but for the maintenance of the rights.
Revocation
Appeals
All EUIPO decisions can be appealed first administratively and later judicially before the European Courts.