Trademarks and brands

Brands are key assets for any business, and are increasingly important in today’s highly competitive markets. To obtain maximum protection, brand owners should so far as possible register their brand at the relevant trade mark registry. Also, whether registered or not, in order to properly protect a brand a brand owner should police the market place and take prompt action against infringers.

Our expertise

We have substantial experience of advising clients on all aspects of the acquisition, exploitation and protection of brands across our network of offices. We regularly advise on the development of brand registration and enforcement strategies.

Our team advises on:

• Trade mark registration, whether in the context of a company start-up through to the expansion of an established portfolio.
• Trade mark oppositions, both prosecuting and defending.
• Licensing of trade marks.
• Brand co-existence agreements.
• Acquisition of trade marks, as part of a share or business acquisition, upon the insolvency of a company or as a discrete matter.
• Trade mark disputes, including court proceedings for the protection of registered and unregistered trade mark rights.
• Domain names registration, transfer and disputes.
• All trade mark and branding issues arising from intellectual property aspects of corporate transactions.