A strong brand is one of the most valuable assets any business can have.
The effective protection and licensing of trade marks will form the basis of a strong brand identity. Trade marks may take various forms, including words, logos, names, colours, sounds, slogans and domain names.
However, there are many reasons why a particular trade mark may not be capable of registration; or why a company might be prevented from using the name of its choice – perhaps because the name is considered descriptive of the goods or services to be offered under it, or because a competitor is using the same or a similar name already. Where a company does have a strong brand, it may find that competitors seek to ‘free-ride’ by using identical or similar marks, slogans or other marketing techniques.
Whether you are setting up a new business; launching a new product; or consolidating, extending and protecting an established reputation, our brand protection team has a wealth of experience in these matters and can:
- Advise on brand strategy, and review your existing IP portfolio to identify any weaknesses or opportunities for expansion
- Undertake national and international clearance searches to identify potential conflicts before launching new brands or taking established brands into new markets
- Advise on trade mark filing and opposition proceedings
- Help you extend your brand through licensing, franchising and joint ventures
- Help to enforce your IP rights against third parties, either in response to a one-off infringement or as part of a wider enforcement programme
- Advise on counterfeiting, online marketplaces and parallel imports
- Advise on ASA complaints and other marketing and regulatory issues
- Help protect your brand against adverse publicity and damaging social media content
Brand protection
As well as advising on one-off IP disputes, we also offer our clients individually tailored, fixed-price brand protection programmes.
We are individually recognised in the London legal directories for our brand protection work, and our team helps both national and international clients to consolidate, extend and protect their brands and reputation.
This includes:
- Policing online use through a specialist IT platform and, where appropriate, working with investigators.
- “One-click” notice and takedown procedures for online platforms and website hosts.
- Sending electronic and physical letters before action to infringers.
- Enforcing IP rights against third parties, either in response to a one-off infringement or as part of a wider enforcement programme.
- Infringement actions before the UK courts.
- Negotiating settlements and monitoring compliance.
- Domain name complaints.
- Protecting brands against adverse publicity and damaging social media content.
We often work with our brand protection clients on the basis of a fixed monthly retainer, which includes an agreed volume of takedown notices/letters of claim and monthly reporting of progress.
Examples of the clients for whom we work in this way include:
- A Premier League football club.
- A global pharmaceutical company.
- A large London-headquartered venture capital company.
