Trade mark and brand protection
The brand is often the most valuable asset of a business and
even more so in difficult economic times where a strong brand
position will help support sales but where budgets are limited.
This means that now even more so the value of a brand has to be
enhanced and protected through a considered and effective
protection, exploitation and enforcement strategy that reflects the
commercial objectives of the company.
Our service
On taking over the responsibility of any new portfolio, we
invest time in your business to ensure that we appreciate the
commercial framework within which your brands exist. We then
conduct an audit of your existing registrations and applications
and, in consultation with you, identify any areas where your
existing protection is inadequate or unnecessary and correct this.
We provide a full range of trade mark and design related services
and can operate in every jurisdiction necessary.
Clearance
We provide a comprehensive name selection and trade mark and
design clearance service both within the UK, European Union and
throughout the world to ensure that the adoption of any new name
will not meet with any unanticipated obstacles either in relation
to the use of that proposed mark or the securing of appropriate
registrations.
Protection
We register trade marks and designs in every country in the
world in which registration is possible, working with a trusted
range of associate firms in countries where we do not have an
office. We have a vast amount of experience in dealing with
registries across the globe and provide strategic advice based on
our local knowledge of practice and procedure in the relevant
countries of interest.
Maintenance, renewals & watching
As part of our service, we deal with the renewal of registered
trade marks and designs within our own dedicated renewals team
which allows us to treat the renewal process not merely as annuity
but as an opportunity to review the relevance of existing
registrations within their commercial context. We can also offer a
service which provides worldwide surveillance of your rights.
Enforcement
We have considerable experience of conducting contentious trade
mark and design registry proceedings throughout the world. We also
work closely with our colleagues in the IP Dispute Resolution Group
to deal with court proceedings and domain name disputes and can
provide bespoke anti-counterfeiting services.
Exploitation
We can work with you to exploit your IP and maximise its value.
This could range from the development and implementation of
international protection and enforcement strategies through to
branding strategy advice, development of agreements on
delimitations and prior rights, licensing, purchase and
merchandising contracts and agreements on transfers of trade marks
and domains.
Our experience
We act for many leading household names, helping them to
protect, defend and exploit their brands. We also manage some of
the largest portfolios in and have an unrivalled client base with
many client relationships having been in existence over many
years.
Our team has a solid track record in advising on all aspects of
the exploitation of brands including the licensing and assignments
of trade marks to ensure that the full potential of the earning
capacity of the brand is realised.
We conduct complex cases before all the UK and EU tribunals, and
currently have cases before the UK-IPO, the OHIM, the High Court in
London, the European Court of Justice and the Courts of various
countries as we manage the trade mark disputes in many other
jurisdictions.