Industrial Property

What is industrial property?

Industrial property is included, like literary and artistic property, in intellectual property.

The purpose of industrial property law is to enhance and protect certain economic values of a company, in particular, technical creations, ornamental creations and distinctive signs.

Industrial property includes:

• • Technical creations, namely patents, plant variety certificates and semiconductor topographies;

  • Ornamental creations and in particular designs and models;

  • Distinctive signs, namely trademarks, company names, trade names, trade names, trade names, domain names, geographical indications.

These assets must be protected, monitored and, where necessary, defended because, as they constitute a real asset value, they are regularly the subject of various attacks by competitors and are therefore frequently copied or plagiarized.

How to protect your creations and brands?

Unlike literary and artistic property, where works are protected by copyright without formalities, technical and ornamental creations (patents and designs) and distinctive signs (trademarks) will only be protected by industrial property law following a proactive action by the owner and in particular following a filing with the competent offices.

Thus, in order to benefit from protection under design law for ornamental creations, it is essential to file designs with the DIP or offices abroad.

Similarly, technological creations and in particular patents require to benefit from an exploitation monopoly on the invention to be filed with the DIP and with the PCT procedure for worldwide recognition.

In addition, to protect the company's distinctive signs and in particular to protect a trademark, the owner must file his trademark with the trademark offices and in particular with the DIP for a Thai trademark, the EUIPO for a European Union trademark, the WIPO for designating, within a single application, different member countries of the Madrid Union, namely, the countries signatory to the Madrid Agreement and/or the Madrid Protocol or all offices abroad.

Finally, a domain name will only be protected as long as it is registered and a corporate name will only be protected to the extent that it is mentioned in the company's articles of association and confirmed by the company's registration.

Industrial property attorneys

JUSLAWS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY and its lawyers specialising in industrial property will provide you with personalised industrial property advice according to your needs, your projects, and the difficulties you may encounter.

Intellectual property attorneys can be of interest to both companies and individuals at all stages of project development, invention or creation.

Thus, it is strongly recommended to seek advice from lawyers specialised in industrial property from the outset of your project in order to ensure that your project does not infringe prior rights of third parties and that it is sufficiently protected to be defended against third parties who would infringe this project.

In addition, lawyers and industrial property attorneys are also necessary throughout the operation of protectable industrial property assets to ensure that the protection of these assets is maintained, but also that these assets are monitored.

Finally, it is strongly recommended to consult a patent attorney in the event that you encounter legal difficulties, in particular if a third party invokes a distinctive sign prior to the one you are exploiting, even before replying.

JUSLAWS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY assists and advises you on industrial property matters in order to give you the means to take legal action against counterfeiters and unfair practices, but also to own a secure portfolio of trademarks, patents and designs.

Advice and assistance for:

• • Project validation,

  • The choice of trademarks, company names, domain names and other distinctive signs,

  • Protection strategies and procedures for trademark registration, design registration and domain name reservation,

  • The processing of complaints related to trademarks, domain names, designs, company names, trade names, trade names, signs, patents...

  • The implementation of surveillance on your distinctive signs,

  • The management of your portfolio of trademarks, designs, domain names and patents.

Negotiation and drafting of:

• • Contracts for the transfer of trademarks, designs and models, domain names,

  • Trademark licensing agreements,

  • Trademark coexistence agreement,

  • Distribution contract,

  • Franchise agreement, particularly in the context of industrial property aspects.

Representation in industrial property litigation, in particular:

• • Counterfeiting of trademarks, designs and models and patents both in defence and in claim,

  • Unfair competition following the reproduction or imitation of a company name, domain name or trade name.