Top 7 Misconceptions about Trademark Protection
How many questions can you answer correctly?
Can I ignore trademark law if I do not intend to register a trademark anyway?
No. Let’s assume you call your new beverage Coca-Cola but do not register a trademark. Would you seriously hope that this would go well? Of course not.
Why should it be any different if you intentionally or negligently infringe one of the hundreds of thousands of other trademarks without having registered a trademark yourself? Trademark law affects every entrepreneur.
Even the selection of the color of the chocolate wrapper in the owner-managed chocolate factory can lead to severe trademark infringements.
Can I wait with my trademark until my new offer has generated initial sales?
No. All identifiers of companies, goods and services must be checked before the market launch. Trademark law does not tolerate any delay.
Speaking of “postponing until later.” Anyone who launches new goods or services invests an enormous amount of lifetime and money to be successful. Do you want to risk this investment by only resolving fundamental legal issues when the company is finally doing well?
Do not do that. We have already seen hardened entrepreneurs with tears in their eyes because everything was taken from them by competitors who were excellently positioned in terms of trademark law.
In the event of trademark infringements, an injunction, the total loss of the established reputation and high claims for damages are threatened indefinitely. Not even the previous domain may then be forwarded to the new domain.
Can I protect my trademark if no identical name exists?
No. A check for identical identifiers is not enough. It depends on the
When assessing the risk of confusion, all aspects of the trademark and the selected classes must be taken into account. There are (without exaggeration) thousands of court rulings on this. Trademark law cannot be solved with common sense.
To make it even more complicated: conversely, under certain conditions, even identical terms can be completely unproblematic.
Miro, Myrro, Wiro, Xiro, Siroo – with which arguments would you assess the risk of confusion between these trademarks?
Is the similarity search only to be carried out in the desired classes?
No. A risk of confusion can also exist between trademarks in different classes. Therefore, the interactions between the classes must be observed.
This is easy with classes that have obvious similarities, e.g. class 9 software and class 42 IT service. A trademark for software in class 9 therefore also requires a search in class 42 – and in up to five other classes.
What is necessary and useful often differs even between companies in very similar business areas. Therefore, there is currently no automatic tool for selecting all the classes to be included. Trademark law is very much case-by-case.
Do you know how many classes a bicycle dealer – i.e. not a particularly complicated profession – might need?
Does a search in the trademark register protect against the infringement of earlier rights?
No. The search in the trademark register is a good start. However, a trademark also has aspects under company law, copyright law, design law and competition law.
Anyone who only checks a trademark under trademark law continues to risk life and limb. Trademark protection needs more than trademark law.
For an EU trademark, therefore, 29 trademark registers, 27 company registers and countless other databases for business designations, product names, designs and copyrighted titles in 27 countries must be searched. Do you have the necessary tools for this?
What’s the point of all this? If my trademark is registered, am I safe?
No. The trademark office does not check whether your trademark infringes earlier rights. Even if you apply for a trademark that is quite clearly already registered and infringes earlier rights, the trademark office would register your trademark.
It is not the task of the trademark office to inform you about infringements. That is the task of trademark attorneys.
The apparent success of “trademark registered” does not offer you any protection against earlier rights – this is provided exclusively by a comprehensive legal review before the trademark is filed. Do you really want to try this yourself?
What can I do myself?
Quite a bit. A preliminary search via Google for identical trademarks in your industry is a good idea. If there is a competitor with the same name in your country, then this is often a showstopper.
In addition, check whether a sensible domain is still available for your desired trademark. Thanks to the many new domain endings, this is often the case.
However, this is not really necessary. On request, we offer an initial quick check including ranking for up to three trademark names as part of our trademark protection packages at no extra charge. The detailed check is then only carried out for the most promising candidate.
Peter HarlanderHarlander & Partner Rechtsanwälte "Der Aufbau Ihrer Marke kostet Sie in den nächsten Jahren Ihre gesamte Arbeitszeit und zigtausende Euro für Werbemaßnahmen.
Diese Investionen in Ihre Marke benötigen einen soliden Schutz."
Authorized Attorneys
EU Trademark Protection Package at a Fixed Price
We protect your EU trademark under fair conditions:
Fixed price in the event of registration: We offer the search, risk assessment and trademark application at an attractive fixed price.
Billing based on effort in the event of cancellation: We have divided the protection of your trademark into four phases. Should the search and risk assessment reveal that the application is legally too risky, then you only pay for the phase(s) that have already been started.
Click on to access detailed information.
inkludiert
- erste Nizzaklasse: € 850
- zweite Nizzaklasse: € 50
- ab der dritten Nizzaklasse je: € 150
Damit sind die vollständigen Kosten des Anmeldeverfahrens und auch bereits die Schutzgebühr für die ersten zehn Jahre des Markenschutzes abgedeckt.
Die Anmeldegebühren sind erst unmittelbar vor der Anmeldung zur Überweisung zu bringen.
Die Förderung wird nach der Anmeldung der Marke ausbezahlt.
Die Mittel sind begrenzt und werden in der Reihenfolge der Antragseingänge vergeben.
Gefördert werden die Amtsgebühren:
- Erstattung von 75 % der Amtsgebühren für EU-Marken
Der maximale Förderbetrag beträgt € 700,00.
Dies entspricht den Kosten der Phasen 1 bis 4. So können wir im Idealfall die Recherche, die Risikobeurteilung und die Anmeldung erledigen, ohne auf weitere Kostenvorschüsse zu warten.
Sollte der Rechercheprozess ein unüberwindbares Hinderniss ergeben, welches eine Anmeldung zu riskant erscheinen lässt, werden die Kosten für die noch nicht begonnenen Phasen natürlich sofort retourniert.
Die Amtsgebühren bezahlen Sie in jedem Fall erst unmittelbar vor der Anmeldung.
EU Markenschutz
When Does Trademark Law Affect Me?
As soon as you
- define a name or a logo for your company, your goods or your services,
- define the design of your goods and packaging, or
- create advertising measures,
you must deal with trademark law.
Sebastian RiedlmairHarlander & Partner Rechtsanwälte "Auf den Punkt gebracht: Jedes Unternehmen müsste zum Start, aber auch bei jeder Neugstaltung des Außenauftrittes eine markenrechtliche Prüfung vornehmen.
Leider passiert dies viel zu selten, was zu einer hohen Zahl an Rechtsproblemen führt."
What Can be Protected as a Trademark?
The following elements for the identification of goods and services can be protected under trademark law – and must therefore be checked under trademark law before use:
Sebastian RiedlmairHarlander & Partner Rechtsanwälte "Sogar die Verwendung Ihres eigenen Namens kann zu einer Markenrechtsverletzung führen. Markenrecht ist hart, aber nicht fair."
Examples of Trademark Infringements
What could possibly go wrong?
You are founding a chocolate factory. Your chocolate should be called A TASTE OF FREEDOM and have a VIOLET packaging.
Your wind turbines should have GREEN STRIPES on the base. Looks prettier.
Your new advertising agency is named #SOMEONE.
As a coach, you market your courses under the promising name BIOLOGY OF SUCCESS.
Peter HarlanderHarlander & Partner Rechtsanwälte "Alle Beispiele sind astreine Markenverletzungen.
Die Inhaber der Markenrechte könnten jederzeit eine einstweilige Verfügung erwirken und die gesamte Aufbauarbeit vernichten."
Consequences of Trademark Infringements
Our law firm is contacted several times a year by desperate people because they registered themselves and then painstakingly built up trademark. Reason: another trademark owner has earlier rights.
Particularly bitter: Often, the cease-and-desist letter does not arrive immediately after the start of business, but only after years of development work – when the trademark is large enough to be noticed by the original trademark owner.
Harsh consequences: Once the earlier trademark owner has discovered the infringement and issued a warning, the loss of the trademark is usually unavoidable. Anyone who has neglected their homework before registration has virtually no chance later on.
Ruinous costs: Destruction of all goods marked with the trademark, removal of the trademark from all business documents, cessation of domain use, payment of license fees for the trademark infringement, publication of the judgment on the website and in newspapers, payment of legal fees. Can your company handle that?
Do it better: talk to us.
Select Your Preferred Appointment Now:Free initial consultationWhy should I Book your Service?
We check your trademark using the same methods that are also used to check large corporate trademarks. We focus on the essentials – so that trademark protection remains affordable.
Our concentrated know-how for the protection of your trademark costs you only a few hundred euros because we are very efficiently organized.
The development of your brand will cost you your entire working time and probably thousands of euros in advertising budget in the coming years.
The later you protect your trademark and – more importantly – have it examined, the greater the damage if it turns out that your trademark infringes earlier rights and therefore cannot be used.
Sebastian RiedlmairHarlander & Partner Rechtsanwälte "Zu uns kommen auch jene Fälle, die ihre Marke selbst oder über scheinbar günstige Billigstangebote angemeldet haben.
Wenn die Abmahnung bereits eingelangt ist, sind im Markenrecht sechsstellige Schadenssummen leider keine Seltenheit."
Many Years of Expertise in Trademark Protection
Which quality factors are important to you?
Our law firm has been in existence since 1953. We now have six locations in Austria and Germany. We owe this success to our specialization and the satisfaction of our clients.
We have our own trademark protection department and an international network of trademark attorneys to assist with foreign trademark disputes.
Our trademark attorneys are without exception EUIPO ETMD EP certified.
certified
Trademark Attorneys
Our trademark protection packages provide your investment in your trademark with the necessary future security.
Peter HarlanderHarlander & Partner Rechtsanwälte "Der Aufbau Ihrer Marke kostet Ihnen in den nächsten Jahren Ihre gesamte Arbeitszeit und zigtausende Euro für Werbemaßnahmen.
Wir sichern Ihre Investionen in Ihre Marke rechtlich ab."
