IP and Trade Marks

Our team in Dublin has Irish qualified IP practitioners and a top-quality IP support group and consequently, Brexit has not affected our ability to represent clients in respect of EUTMs and Registered Community Designs, whether acting before the EUIPO or in EU litigation. We can also act before the Intellectual Property Office of Ireland (IPOI) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). Through our foreign associates, we offer corresponding services all over the world.

Our Irish office ensures that we continue to provide the following services to Irish, EU and overseas clients:

• Intellectual Property Portfolio Management

We conduct IP portfolio audits to help businesses identify their assets and then to manage them through use of our specialist IP asset management software. This ensures that all relevant deadlines such as renewal dates are not missed, disputes are tracked and that assignments, licences and coexistence agreements are linked to relevant rights. Clients appreciate the ability to give them online access to our software enabling them to check progress and print off reports from their own personal devices.

• Intellectual Property Clearance Searches

We work closely with some of the world’s leading brand owners and branding agencies to help steer them through this potential minefield. We are able to conduct searches in Ireland, the UK and internationally. Searches can include trade mark searches, company name searches, domain name searches, advertising strapline searches, common law searches for unregistered rights and design searches.

• Registration of Intellectual Property

We assist our clients in obtaining registrations for their IP in Ireland, the UK and EU and also internationally through our global network of tested and trusted contacts. We have an enviable track record of navigating trade marks that are difficult to register through both registry and competitor complaints. The registration process is assisted by having applications managed through our specialist IP Portfolio Management software. Our services include the registration of trade marks, designs, patents and domain names.

• Intellectual Property Disputes

We act for some of the largest companies in the world as well as for small and medium businesses. Whilst our objective is often to resolve disputes with the minimum of fuss and costs, we also have a track record of acting in and winning the most complex IP disputes and creating substantial value for our clients. Many of the disputes that we work on have multi-jurisdictional aspects to them.

• Intellectual Property Exploitation

We have a specialist team who are experts in dealing with the full spectrum of contracts dealing with intellectual property rights. Whether you are producing a film, sponsoring a live music event, commissioning a theatrical stage production, using a celebrity to appear in your advertising, licensing a piece of music for use on your website or looking at any other deal which relies on buying, selling, licensing or protecting intellectual property in any way…. We have the expertise and knowledge to help you.

• Intellectual Property Watching, Content Monitoring and Anti-Counterfeiting

Watch services provide an alert when a third party seeks to register a trade mark, domain name or company name that incorporates your brand or other IP. We can also monitor competitors so that a client is notified of new trade marks filed by a competitor, or of new applications filed by third parties for goods/services in the same business sector. Online content monitoring services help identify platforms where infringing activity is taking place, whether unauthorised sales of genuine product or counterfeiting. Our services include trade mark watch services, company name watch services, domain name watch services, competitor monitoring, sector monitoring, online brand usage and online content monitoring.

Brexit

From the 1st January 2021 European Union trade marks and registered community designs no longer cover the UK. Please review our inbrief on the impact of Brexit on your IP. Lewis Silkin opened an office in Dublin three years ago with Irish qualified IP practitioners and consequently, Brexit does not affect our ability to represent clients in respect of EUTMs and Registered Community Designs, whether acting before the EUIPO or in EU litigation.