Trademark law

German trademark law is part of marking or labeling law. The latter serves to protect companies’ and product names or designations such as they are used in regular business relations and operations. It is part of the field of industrial property protection. Trademark protection may be achieved on several levels. It is international. It covers the range from national trademarks to EU marks and so-called IR marks. In order to achieve efficient trademark protection it is first of all necessary to determine the regional coverage which is desired or required for a trademark. At the same time it is also necessary to define the goods and the services  which are to be covered by the trademark and for which the mark is to be protected. After that  it is to be found out in pertinent trademark registers whether any prior rights or titles are already in existence. The same search must also be done in international trademark registers.  It thus makes sense and is expedient to have a trademark research done before an application for registration of a trademark will actually be filed. Such a trademark research helps to prevent notices of warnings from owners of  prior trademark titles. Such warning proceedings can occasion and give rise to considerable costs. In the absence of  a prompt reaction there is a risk that a temporary injunction will be issued, which is extremely costly when it comes to legal disputes and litigation concerning the validity of trade mark titles. One domain where trademarks law is very often infringed upon is to be found in the internet. It is therefore highly recommendable for every  trademark owner  to regularly check the internet for similar marks. The same applies also for the surveillance of trademark applications which are filed with the German Patent and Trademarks Office or with the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market  in Alicante.

We consider it our mission to assist you in applying for the registration of a trademark – following a trademark research – in order to avoid any infringement upon a prior title. This need not necessarily be an infringement upon a trademark, as such an application and registration could also give rise to collision and interference with rights to a name. It is another prime concern of our office to assist you in asserting your own trademark rights and titles and to defend you against other parties’ trademark claims in cases where you will be involved either in due process of law or by way of injunctions.