Trademarks and commercial designations are of crucial importance for the way a company is perceived by the public and for the success of its business. They also embody a significant commercial value and may even be the most valuable asset of a company.

Our trademark department will handle the registration and management of your national, European and international trademarks. Our experienced lawyers will advise you in the run-up to registration on questions regarding the protection of your proposed trademarks as well as the best brand strategy. On request we will hire specialists to conduct a trademark clearance search before registration to determine whether your proposed trademark would infringe any third-party rights. Using our network of contacts to specialised lawyers in most other countries around the world, we will also coordinate the registration and protection of your trademarks abroad. In the daily management of your trademarks we will ensure their protection through continuous monitoring of the publication of the trademark registrations of third parties; we will also ensure observance of all deadlines and formalities vis-à-vis national and foreign authorities.

We will safeguard your interests before the German Patent and Trademark Office and the Federal Patents Court in opposition, nullity and cancellation proceedings. With regard to Community trademarks, we will represent your interests before the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market in Alicante as well as before the European Court of First Instance and the European Court of Justice.

Our lawyers have extensive experience in litigating and trying trademark cases and will assert your interest quickly and efficiently in and out of court in case of trademark infringement. The range of possibilities extends from quick cessation of the infringement by cease and desist letter or temporary injunction up to criminal prosecution and border seizure in cases of trademark counterfeiting. In case of wrongful accusations of infringement, we will defend your interest in court or come to reach at a economically reasonable solution in out-of-court negotiations.