Trademarks

What is a trademark?

A trademark may be any designation that makes it possible to distinguish the goods of one enterprise from those of another enterprise and that is possible to be presented in the register of trademarks in a way that allows to determine the unambiguous and precise subject of the protection as granted.

What can be a trademark?

In particular, a trademark may be a word, including a surname, a drawing, a letter, a number, a color, a spatial form, including the shape of a product or packaging, as well as a sound.

For how long is the right of protection for a trademark granted?

Protection rights are granted for trademarks, and their protection lasts 10 years from the date of application and may be extended for subsequent 10-year periods. It is important that trademark protection is territorial in nature, and therefore trademarks are protected only in the territory of the country in which they were registered or in the region, as in the case of European trademarks.

Why is it worth registering your trademark?

By registering a trademark, you will be able to:ł:

• Protect many aspects of your brand, including your company name and logo.
• Get legal protection in the form of exclusive ownership of your brand.
• Prevent other entities from using a registered trademark or a similar designation, and thus prevent third parties from deriving material benefits from the use of a registered trademark.
• Extend your trademark rights internationally.
• Make sure that you do not infringe on the registration rights of others.
• Secure your investments in building the company's reputation and value, as trademarks are a valuable asset of the company and are a basic and important element of promoting the goods produced or services provided.

Our trademark services include:

• conducting appropriate searches in trademark databases to assess whether a proposed trademark can be registered;
• advising on the risks related to the introduction of a new trademark to the market and the analysis of the trademark protection strategy;
• filing trademark applications, including drawing up a list of goods and/or services and conducting proceedings until a decision on trademark registration is obtained in Poland, Europe, and worldwide. We have established cooperation with many foreign law firms around the world, thanks to which we can coordinate international proceedings in the field of trademark registration. Importantly, the choice of foreign attorneys whose services we use depends on the specific requirements of the client.
• conducting court and administrative proceedings before the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw and the Supreme Administrative Court regarding decisions of the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland regarding trademarks;
• supervising the dates of official fees related to the extension of protection of registered trademarks, including the payment of fees to the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland and foreign offices;
• conducting proceedings on opposition, revocation, or invalidation of a trademark before the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland or the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), including the preparation of motions and pleadings and participation in hearings;
• monitoring of new trademark applications: as part of this service, we can, for example, conduct regular searches for publications of new trademarks of competitors, which makes it possible to quickly counteract the appearance on the market of identical or similar trademarks intended for identical or similar goods and services;
• conducting court proceedings regarding disputes over company names, registered and unregistered trademarks, as well as copyrights to designations used on the market.
• cooperation with the client in terms of adjusting the brand in order to avoid infringement of the priority rights of third parties.