Trademarks
A trademark allows you to protect a name, a logo or other types of trademarks, such as a three-dimensional trademark, for your goods or services. With a trademark, you can distinguish yourself from your competitors.
STORK BAMBERGER offers a wide range of services for the optimal protection of your trademark rights. Our advice is tailored to your individual needs and circumstances. With our expertise and many years of experience in all areas of trademark law, we accompany you from the pre-filing search through the application and registration to the enforcement of your rights.
Strategic advice on the registration of trademarks, development of individual trademark strategies
Trademark searches and trademark evaluations
Elaboration of customised lists of goods and services
Trademark applications in Germany at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA), in the EU as a European Union trade mark at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and by way of International Registrations (IR trademarks) at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
National trademark applications abroad via our worldwide and long-standing network of fellow attorneys
Opposition proceedings at the DPMA or EUIPO
Cancellation procedures
Enforcement of trademark rights
Responding to or preparing warning letters
Trademark watching and monitoring
Trademark/Brand portfolio management
Monitoring and payment of renewal fees
Trademark licensing agreements, assistance in trademark sales, trademark assignments and delimitation from conflicting trademarks
Search
If you wish to register a trademark, we will first develop a strategy with you to protect your interests in the best possible way. We will check whether the registration requirements are met and then select the appropriate trademark form (logo or figurative mark, word mark, word/figurative mark, 3D mark, etc.). Based on your requirements, we will draw up a customised list of goods and services. Within the scope of a search, we check the availability of the desired name, logo or other trademark form for the selected goods/services.
Registration
We handle the application procedure before the relevant authority and, if necessary, deal with official objections due to absolute grounds for refusal (e.g., a trade mark can be rejected as “descriptive”). If third parties invoke earlier rights, we represent you in opposition proceedings. In this context, we also draft agreements on prior rights, which can often be used to settle opposition proceedings.
Protection abroad
In addition to national proceedings before the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) and the Federal Patent Court (BPatG), we also represent you before the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the international authority, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). For the protection, defence and enforcement of your trademarks abroad, we can rely on an extensive network of colleagues in all countries of the world, with whom we have been co-operating on a basis of trust for many years.
Nowadays, there are a number of possibilities for trademark protection beyond Germany. Protection can be obtained as a national individual trademark, as an EU trade mark (formerly: European Community trade mark) or bundled for several countries as an international registration under the Madrid Agreement or its Protocol. The protection options differ in terms of the requirements for protection, the use conditions and, last but not least, the costs. We will help you to find the most favourable option depending on the desired scope of protection.
Trademark defence and enforcement
As part of a so-called collision monitoring or trademark watch, we identify younger third-party trademarks that are identical or similar to your trademark and assert your rights in opposition proceedings. In the event of infringement, we help you to enforce your rights out of court and/or through legal action. If necessary, we will work together with specialised attorneys-at-law. If third parties use your trademarks without authorisation, a request for authorisation or a warning letter is the first step.
On the other hand, if you have been warned in the course of your business, we will work with you to develop an appropriate defence strategy.
We also advise and represent you in cancellation proceedings after registration of the trademark in the event of attacks on your IP right. Grounds for cancellation include prior rights, lack of registrability and, in particular, revocation due to non-use.
Licence agreements
If you want your trademark to be used by a third party, or if you want to use someone else’s trademark, we will negotiate on your behalf and draw up the necessary licence agreement.