Finding a good brand name or logo is not an easy task. We explain the legal requirements and exclusion criteria.
Brands
A brand is one that stays in your mind!
A good brand leads to better customer loyalty, increases your
brand awareness and means more people decide to purchase
your products. It can also be enforced effectively in case of
infringement.
We show you how to increase and safeguard your economic
success by choosing the right brand and appropriate
protection.
Creating GOOD brands
Take advantage of our experience
With your good performance you earn reputation in the market. You gain awareness among your customers, which leads to more business transactions. So, you don’t want that others exploit your reputation.
With a well-chosen brand you will secure an exclusive place in the minds of your customers. A registered trademark can monopolize your brand and thus the access to this exclusive place. And this protects you from exploitation by imitators.
We accompany you in a structured process to create a brand that is free to use, can be well protected and makes your good reputation visible.
Protectability
Contributing to profits
We analyze your idea of a brand. Will it contribute to your economic success? Will the brand allow you a good ranking on the Internet? Will it give you enough freedom and flexibility to change or expand your business model? Will it allow direct feedback of inquiries to your offer, and exclusively to your business, so that third parties won’t profit from your advertising efforts? We help you with creativity techniques to find a brand that fits you and your goals.
Freedom to Operate
You can enter the market when you know that your new brand is free to use and that there is no risk of being attacked by third parties. The amount of research we do is based on your needs and economic interests.
Enforceability
The right choice of classes and terms in the list of goods and services determines the scope of protection. We create trademarks which are effectively enforceable against counterfeit and imitation.
Marketing
Your brand should be aligned with your marketing strategies. We explain what is important and support you with our partner network in building an overall strategy. This means you receive a company or product trademark that is suitable as an image carrier and arouses positive associations in customers.
Application strategies
Through many years of experience in the development and management of international trademark portfolios as well as in legal enforcement, we are aware of the peculiarities of trademark law in many foreign countries. We also maintain close relationships with competent partner law firms abroad. We lay out strategies to show you how to scale the regional and content-related expansion of your portfolio and adapt it to your business development.
Stopping imitations
You attack quickly and powerfully!
If your case goes to court, we leave nothing to chance. Legal disputes remain in our hands and are handled by our firm’s attorneys at law. Your case benefits from short communication paths and shared resources. Added to this are our research and in-depth knowledge of your competitor. Based on these factors we are able to develop individual, flexible and tactically aligned defense strategies.
Taking tough measures
Query questioning entitlement, warning, preliminary injunction or proceedings on the merits – we explain what type of reaction is appropriate in your case, both legally and economically. Here we take into account the country in which the infringement originated and the opponent’s vulnerability. We enforce court decisions immediately – be it through measures taken on an exhibition or seizure at customs.
Exploratory investigations
When we discover the tip of the proverbial iceberg, we then uncover the whole issue. We clarify the full extent of the infringement so the competitor’s entire damage-relevant actions become apparent. This can be done with test purchases or undercover investigators.
Tactical litigation
In court we act proactively, maintaining pressure on the other side and bringing facts and arguments to bear, based on our tactical considerations. This enables us to stay in the lead, keep all options for action open while having the possibility of increasing our attacks to unsettle our opponent.
Securing trademark values
Keep an eye on your competition!
The scope of protection and value of a trademark are not static variables. Intensive use and an increasing degree of awareness have a positive effect and increase the impact. However, there are factors that can reduce the scope of protection after registration, in particular if you tolerate the use of similar third-party trademarks.
In order to secure the value of your trademark and expand your rank of exclusiveness, we help you with monitoring the trademark registers to detect any similar new registrations, challenge them and also keep a watchful eye on the market.
Monitoring the registers
We continuously monitor the trademark registers for you, depending on the situation in Europe, certain foreign countries or worldwide. We help to evaluate conflicting foreign trademarks regarding potential damage to your image or risks to your turnover. Furthermore, we examine the opponent’s trademark portfolio and assess the risk of a counterattack. We identify options for action and prospects for success to find a quick and cost-effective solution– through negotiations, for example.
Challenging third-party trademarks
Where direct discussions don’t bring the desired results, we challenge conflicting third-party trademarks. Preferably by way of cost-effective opposition proceedings. We proceed step by step, at scalable costs and without losing sight of the possibility of an agreement. Because filing an opposition may further increase the pressure to negotiate. Our partner network allows us to react quickly and reliably to trademark conflicts abroad and thereby safeguard your markets worldwide.
Finding imitators
We also focus on the market and competitors’ and imitators’ publications. We examine the entire trademark portfolio of an opponent – checking out the Internet presence and exhibition publications involved.
We don’t limit our research to trademark registers. We search in all channels where imitations may occur, e.g. websites, social media or online marketplaces.