Company Services
We operate a world class Trade Mark Practice. A major strength is the depth of experience across a diversity of industries (including FMCG, aerospace, finance, medical, military, media and entertainment, construction and automotive) and trade mark matters, (including registration, oppositions and revocation, portfolio management, due diligence, assignments, appeals and domain name issues). We provide our services to a worldwide client base that ranges from sole traders to global corporations.
In addition we have particular expertise with difficult cases requiring unusual levels of in-depth knowledge of fundamental legal concepts which underlie trade mark law. In particular we successfully registered some of the first 3D marks under the EU trade mark system, handled one of the first EU trade mark oppositions and a range of cases resulting in unusually substantive hearings.
Case Study:
There were a large number of counterfeit batteries on the market for mobile phones. These batteries, despite bearing labels stating that they were of a particular type (high end battery), were not, inside, high end and were known to explode and otherwise damage the mobile phone they were inserted into, as well as, of course, losing sales of genuine batteries for our client. The basis for stopping the counterfeiting was trade mark infringement (since our client’s TMs were printed on the pretend label).
Our attorney used to go with the Police service when they would raid some of the market stalls, etc, selling suspected counterfeits, to confirm whether they were genuine or not, since they were often mixed up. Although he couldn't usually tell whether the labels themselves were genuine or not (because they were often very well printed copies), he had been taught how otherwise to determine the difference between counterfeit and genuine batteries, for example, by weight (he was given a small portable scales to check the weights at the market stall).
