Industrial property law

Bouchara Law Firm is specialized in intellectual property law and assists you in matters of industrial property as well as in matters of literary and artistic property.

What is industrial property?

Industrial property is one of the two components (alongside literary and artistic property) of intellectual property. The purpose of industrial property law is to enhance and protect the economic value of a company’s creations, particularly technical creations (patents), ornamental creations (designs) and distinctive signs (trademarks, company names, etc.).

Indeed, industrial property includes :

Technical creations

Namely patents, plant breeders’ certificates and semiconductor topographies.

Ornamental creations

In particular, designs and models.

The distinctive signs

These include trademarks, company names, trade names, signs, domain names, appellations of origin and indications of source.

These assets, which are the true patrimonial value of the company, must be protected, monitored and defended against third party attacks (copying, imitation, etc.).

How to protect your creations and your brands?

If the literary and artistic property assets are automatically acquired as a result of the creation (subject to the author demonstrating the ownership and originality of his work), the industrial property assets must necessarily be registered with the competent Offices in order to be enforceable against third parties.

Ornamental creations

In order for a product to benefit from protection under design law, its owner must file it with the competent offices (INPI for France, EUIPO for the European Union, WIPO or via national filings for foreign countries).

Technical creations

In order for a technical creation (notably patents) to benefit from protection, the creator must necessarily proceed with its registration with the competent offices (INPI for France, EPO for the European Union etc.).

Distinguishing marks

The trademark is one of the distinctive signs of a company which, in order to claim protection under trademark law, must file the sign with the competent offices (INPI for a French trademark, EUIPO for a European Union trademark, WIPO or national registries for a foreign trademark).

The domain name will only be protected by its reservation with a registrar. In the same way, a corporate name can only be validly invoked against third parties if it appears in the company’s articles of association and is actually registered in the Trade and Companies Register (RCS).

Bouchara Law Firm assists you in the protection and defense of your industrial property assets, whether you are a company or a self-employed entrepreneur.

Intellectual property law being complex, it is strongly recommended to call upon lawyers specialized in the field who will bring you their expertise and advice adapted to your needs and thus optimize the protection and defense of your industrial property rights.

We also assist you in the management of your industrial property portfolios (registration, renewal, etc.) and their exploitation (license agreement, assignment agreement, franchise agreement, etc.).

Finally, it is also recommended that you seek the advice of a lawyer specializing in this area to deal with infringements of your rights by third parties (unauthorized use of a trademark, copying of a model offered for sale at a lower price, etc.) and to establish the best strategy to adopt (attempt at amicable resolution, administrative or litigation action, etc.).

The Bouchara Law Firm accompanies you throughout the life of your industrial property assets and brings you its expertise to optimize the protection and defense of your rights.

Our services

Advice and assistance

The Bouchara firm assists you in particular for :

• The elaboration of your project with regard to the practical and legal problems that may arise;
• The elaboration of a strategy of deposits of your creations in order to identify your strategic countries for the development of your activities;
• The formalities for depositing your works with the Offices ;
• Monitoring of your intellectual property rights (trademark monitoring, Internet monitoring);
• Management of your intellectual property rights.

Negotiation and writing

Bouchara Law Firm assists you in the negotiation and drafting of contracts relating to intellectual property rights, including

• Contracts for the transfer of trademarks, designs, domain names… ;
• Licensing agreements for trademarks, designs, copyrights, etc… ;
• Trademark coexistence agreements;
• Distribution contracts;
• Franchise agreements.

Representation

Bouchara Law Firm defends your interests in the context of industrial property litigation and in particular in the context of actions:

In counterfeiting of trademarks, designs, etc…

Unfair competition (imitation of a company name, use of your graphic charter, etc.).