HomeExpertiseEU Trade Marks and Community Designs

From our location in Brussels, we advise on all aspects of EU trade marks and Community designs across the entire life-cycle. We regularly advise house-hold names from a variety of sectors, providing strategic and tailored advise to enable them to protect and preserve their brands and designs.

Our Brussels based team is a fully integrated practice of lawyers and sits alongside dispute resolution and commercial practices. We work hand in hand with our colleagues in other jurisdictions to ensure that we are there to help you develop and protect all aspects of your business.

We act directly before the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). We work with a range of independent firms for overseas matters, who are experts in local trade mark and design laws.

We recognise our client’s commercial concerns and understand the importance of pursuing mediation and alternative dispute resolution procedures where appropriate. If litigation cannot be avoided, we have a deep understanding of the European court and appellate court procedures and our team has represented clients in a number of pioneering European trade mark cases.

Our trade mark/design and brand protection work includes:

  • Trade mark/design portfolio strategy;
  • Availability searches;
  • Brand searches and risk reports;
  • Watch services;
  • In-use investigation reports;
  • Clearance opinions;
  • Filing and prosecuting trade marks and designs (national, EU, or international);
  • Representation before the EUIPO and WIPO:
    • After provisional refusal
    • Opposition proceedings
    • Cancellation/Invalidity actions
  • Drafting of Co-branding agreements;
  • Drafting of Co-existence agreements;
  • Drafting of Sponsorship agreements;
  • Drafting of Co-ownership agreements;
  • Drafting of License agreements;
  • Drafting of Transfer agreements;
  • Due diligence reports;
  • EU- wide Customs protection;
  • Design and copyright issues;
  • Trade secrets;
  • Trade mark trolling.