Industrial property law
Areas of expertise > Industrial property law
Bouchara & Avocats is specialized in intellectual property law and assists its clients in both copyright and literary and artistic property law.
What is industrial property?
Industrial property is included in intellectual property alongside literary and artistic property. The aim of industrial property law is to enhance and protect certain economic values of a company, in particular technical creations, ornamental designs and distinctive signs.
Industrial property encompasses :
Technical creations
These include patents, plant breeders’ rights and semiconductor topographies.
Ornamental creations
This includes designs and models.
Distinctive signs
These include trademarks, company names, trade names, brand names, domain names, appellations of origin and indications of source.
These assets need to be protected, monitored and, where necessary, defended, as they represent a real asset and are regularly the object of various attacks from competitors, and are thus frequently copied or plagiarized.
How to protect your creations and your trademarks? ?
Contrary to literary and artistic property, where works are protected by copyright without any formality, technical and ornamental creations and distinctive signs will only be protected by industrial property law following a positive act by the owner and in particular following a deposit with the competent offices.
Ornamental creations
To benefit from the protection of design rights for ornamental creations, it is imperative to file a design registration with the INPI, the OHIM or any other office abroad.
Technical creations
Technical creations, and in particular patents, require, to benefit from a monopoly of exploitation on the invention, to be filed with the INPI for French patents and soon with the European Patent Office (EPO) for European patents.
Distinctive signs of the company
with the OHIM for a Community trademark, with the WIPO to designate in the same application, different member countries of the Madrid Union, i.e., the countries that are signatories to the Madrid Agreement and/or the Madrid Protocol, or with all the national offices abroad. Finally, a domain name will only be protected as long as it is registered, and a company name will only be protected if it is mentioned in the company’s articles of association and confirmed by the company’s registration.
Bouchara & Avocats and its lawyers specialized in industrial property will provide you with personalized industrial property advice according to your expectations, your projects and the difficulties you may encounter.
Industrial property advice can be of interest to both companies and individuals at all stages of development of a project, invention, or creation.
Thus, it is strongly recommended to request the advice of lawyers specialized in industrial property as soon as your project is created in order to have the guarantee that your project does not infringe upon the prior rights of third parties and that it is sufficiently protected to be defended against third parties who would infringe upon this project.
In addition, intellectual property counsel is also needed throughout the exploitation of the IP protectable assets to ensure that the protection of these assets is maintained, but also that these assets are monitored.
Finally, it is strongly advised to consult an industrial property lawyer in the event that you encounter legal difficulties and in particular, if a third party invokes a distinctive sign prior to the one you are using, or even before responding.
Bouchara & Avocats will assist you and advise you in industrial property matters in order to give you the means to act against counterfeiters and unfair practices, but also to have a secure portfolio of trademarks, and designs.
Our services
Advice and assistance
- project validation
- management of your portfolio of trademarks, designs, domain names and patents.
- the choice of trademarks, company names, domain names and other distinctive signs,
- protection strategies and procedures for filing trademarks, designs and domain names,
- processing claims related to trademarks, domain names, designs, company names, trade names, signs, patents, etc.
- the implementation of surveillance on your distinctive signs,
Negotiation and writing
We represent you in :
- distribution contract,
- franchise agreement, particularly in the context of industrial property aspects.
- contracts for the transfer of trademarks, designs and domain names,
- Trademark licensing contracts,
- trademark coexistence agreement
Representation
We represent you in industrial property litigation, including :
- infringement of trademarks, designs and patents both in defense and in demand,
- unfair competition following the reproduction or imitation of a corporate name, a domain name or a trade name
Intellectual Property Lawyers Team
Brand Service
Christelle Ndjetehe
Trademark Assistant
