Viewing posts categorised under: Propiedad Industrial
17Jul
How to protect your trademark from counterfeits
by MariaLXPropiedad Industrial

The imitations of goods cause a drop in sales and loss of brand prestige. To prosecute counterfeiters, it is always necessary to have, in the first place, a duly registered prior right. In addition, it is advisable to establish a surveillance of this right before both the National IP Offices and Customs.

 

Once we have verified that we have a prior right and, having known that an infringement is being committed by a third party, the first step is to notify the infringer. To do this, an IP specialist must write a request and send it the infringer by the appropriate means.

 

Sometimes this requirement is sufficient to achieve our objective, but not always. Since sometimes, it can be complex to notify to the infringer as it is not possible to find its contact details. On the other hand, it may be that said infringer refuses to comply with our requirements.

 

In case of not being able to stop the infraction by sending the request, it would be necessary to enter legal actions. For this, a lawyer specialized in Industrial Property would draft the necessary documents to submit them before the corresponding Courts.

 

It may also be that possible that you have to act through customs to intercept counterfeit products before they are placed on the market and, thus, not harm the prestige and quality of the brand.

 

If it is demonstrated that the trademark is being used illegally by the infringer and, depending on the seriousness of the infringement, you may be entitled to receive financial compensation.

 

If you need more information or advice, please feel free to contact us.

 

07/17/2020

LEXLEM IP

info@lexlem.com

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09Jul
What are the risks to consumers of Counterfeit Products?
by MariaLXPropiedad Industrial

Every day thousands of counterfeit products are seized in Spain, sold through different channels, both online, markets and establishments.

 

It must be borne in mind that the production, distribution and sale of these products constitutes a crime against Industrial Property and may constitute a crime against Public Health.

 

Counterfeit products are of all kinds: clothing, watches, toys, mobile phones, food products, medicines, body care products, or power tools.

 

These products do not usually meet the minimum quality standards, in addition to not passing the necessary sanitary controls, so they can be very dangerous for our health. Among other damages, they can cause allergies, suffocations, deformations of the feet, poisonings and even resistance to official medications or even death.

 

To prevent the sale of these products, some digital platforms are already taking measures to block sellers of these products, for example, the creation of Counterfeiting Crime Units, or also provide consumers with the data of sellers of the different products, so that they can check the reliability of the seller.

 

Furthermore, being dangerous to our health, these products cause, in Spain alone, annual losses of 6,766 million Euros and a loss of 53,467 annual jobs.

 

For all these reasons, please make sure that you are making a secure purchase.

 

July 9, 2020

Lexlem Abogados

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29Jun
Why opening a business in China for small, medium and large companies is a good option. We help you with the Registration of Patents and Trademarks in China and the rest of Asia.
by MariaLXPropiedad Industrial

In 2019, China surpassed the United States as the country of origin for international patent applications filed with WIPO, being the first time in 40 years that the United States has been surpassed in PCT registration.

According to WIPO data, last year, a total of 265,800 international patent applications were filed via PCT, coming from 58,990 in China, while from the United States were 57,840. Japan, for its part, remains in 3rd position and South Korea in 5th.

These numbers highlight the long-term trend of innovation shifting to the East, as more than half of PCT applications come from Asia.

Why is interesting that my company opens a business in China?

China is in a key position compared to other Asian countries.

In fact, it is the leader of its region and the 2nd economy worldwide. It is the country with the largest number of inhabitants and with the highest economic growth in the last 25 years. In fact, there are more and more middle / upper class with consumption capacity.

What are the conditions for investment?

The conditions are optimal since, broadly speaking, there is an abundance of employment, low cost of land, market potential, favorable legislation for foreign investment, commercial opening.

China is currently considered “the factory of the world”, but it is also the center of studies and business for large multinational companies.

Shipping in China

60% of world freight shipping is generated in Asia.

And of the 10 largest sea freight ports in the world, 6 are in China.

Patents and Trademarks in China

For all the above, if you decide to open a business in China, we can help you with the registration of your trademarks and patents in China, in addition to all of Asia, in order to protect your company and be able to prevent third parties from taking advantage of your work, time and investment.

For more information, contact us, trust professionals: info@lexlem.com

 

June 29, 2020

Lexlem IP

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22Jun
Self-employer or business owner: Why is important to register your trademark to protect your business?
by MariaLXPropiedad Industrial

If you have started a business, or have developed a new product, surely you will have invested a lot of time and money in its start-up, preparing a business plan, choosing a name, advertising, web, social networks, commercial premises…

However, you have not thought about registering your trademark. And this is a big mistake.

 

Why?

Firstly, because if your trademark succeeds, it is likely that any competitor wants to use it and benefit from your effort and investment and, to do so, register the trademark. If this happens, it is quite likely that you will be forced to change the trademark of your products and/or services. With all the inconveniences that this entails. Customers will stop associating your products or services with the new trademarks and you may lose customers. In addition, having to change the trademark on all the items that carry it will incur many additional costs.

On the contrary, if you have your trademark registered, the law gives you the exclusive right to use it, so you can prevent the above from happening. In addition, you can also prevent third parties from using your trademark fraudulently for counterfeit products, with the damages and losses that this topic implies.

You can also grant licenses to third parties, thus obtaining economic benefits for the payment of royalties and, in addition, you will preserve the quality of the products or services.

Also, trademark can be sold if you are not interested in maintaining it for whatever reason.

 

Basic information about trademarks

As a trademark, you can register: words, images, figures, symbols and graphics, letters, figures and combinations thereof, three-dimensional shapes, sounds, any combination of all the indicated.

Products and services that can be protected: There are 45 classes of products and services. A trademark can be applied for one or more of these classes, depending on the products or services for which it is going to be used. The choice of these classes and the products and/or services is very important since it may depend on the trademark being registered.

Territory: a trademark can be registered at national, community or international level. Before filing, it is necessary to search to see if there are identical or nearly identical trademarks in official records, to minimize the risk of the trademark being denied.

Duration: a trademark, depending on the territory in which it is registered, usually has a validity of 10 years, and may be renewed for successive periods of another 10 years, unlimitedly.

 

Therefore, if you want to protect your business, we advise you to register your trademark.

 

For more information, contact us, trust professionals: info@lexlem.com

 

Maria Carcelen

22th June 2020

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22May
COVID19 and Patents. Will citizens around the world be able to access it in accordance with current laws?
by MariaLXPropiedad Industrial

First of all, and taking into account the social responsibility of the researchers, we understand that, once the vaccine is developed, the owners of the vaccine will very likely agree to grant favourable contractual licenses for the good of humanity.

However, and in the hypothetical case that this does not happen, patent regulations have sufficient mechanisms to deal with these cases of health emergency.

Therefore, even if no voluntary licenses were granted, the State could compel one or more companies to grant them in order to ensure supply. For example, the Spanish Patent Law, in its Articles 91 and 95 say the indicated below.

Article 91. Assumptions of compulsory licensing.

The granting of compulsory licenses on a certain patent will proceed when one of the following cases occurs:

[…]

  1. d) Existence of reasons of public interest for the concession.

Article 95. Compulsory licenses for reasons of public interest.

  1. For reasons of public interest, the Government may submit, at any time, a patent application or a patent already granted, to the compulsory licensing regime, thus providing for it by royal decree.
  2. It will be considered in any case that there are reasons of public interest when:
  3. a) The initiation, increase or generalization of the exploitation of the invention, or improvement of the conditions in which such exploitation is carried out, are of primary importance for public health or for national defense.
  4. b) The lack of exploitation or the insufficient quality or quantity of the exploitation carried out implies serious damage to the economic or technological development of the country.
  5. c) The national supply needs so require.
  6. The royal decree referred to in section 1 must be agreed upon at the proposal of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism. In cases where the importance of exploiting the invention is related to public health or national defense, the proposal must be formulated jointly with the Minister responsible for health or defense, respectively.
  7. The royal decree that establishes the subjection of the patent to the compulsory licensing regime may directly establish, in whole or in part, the scope, conditions and license fee in the cases provided for in article 97.2, or remit the fixing of such conditions to the appropriate procedure before the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office provided in the following chapter for its concretion in the resolution granting the license.
  8. When the subjection to compulsory licensing for reasons of public interest is due to its importance for national defense, the possibility of requesting such licenses from one or more specific companies may be reserved.

Maria Carcelén

05/22/2020

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12Dec
(Español) Denominación “Vinagre balsámico de Módena”
by Lexlem IPPropiedad Industrial

Sorry, this entry is only available in European Spanish.

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12Dec
(Español) ¿Por qué la oficina de patentes japonesa cancela el registro de CLUB MOET KYOTO?
by Lexlem IPPropiedad Industrial

Sorry, this entry is only available in European Spanish.

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