The brand is a name, a sign, a word, a symbol or a combination of these elements that is able to distinguish a company, a product or a service. It constitutes in all respects the most immediate and effective distinctive element for a company, as well as being an integral part of it and its identity. In a highly dynamic and competitive economic context such as the contemporary one, the brand has assumed an increasingly strategic value since it is able to enclose within it a wealth of assets and intangible values of inestimable value. The latter allow to build brand identity and brand reputation over time, helping to clearly and unequivocally distinguish the company and its products from the competition. For this reason, it is essential to ensure adequate protection for your brand, protecting it from increasingly widespread risks such as counterfeiting and unfair competition. The risk is greater the more investments have been made and the more the brand is known.
The GD D’Alto consultancy firm offers professional assistance in obtaining and maintaining the registration of a trademark that can be requested by any natural or legal person interested in it. The trademark can consist of enunciative parts and/or figurative elements. There are also other types of marks, such as: the sound mark and the olfactory mark. The registration of trademarks can be achieved in the countries of interest, ie with Italian trademarks; European Union trademarks; International trademarks (based on the Madrid Protocol) or foreign national trademarks. Registration is subject to the possession of three requirements: distinctiveness, novelty and lawfulness. The office in charge carries out an examination aimed at verifying the compliance of the application based on the absolute requirements provided for by the directives of the relevant legislation. Generally, following the administrative examination, the application for opposability by third parties is published within the deadline and so to initiate administrative opposition proceedings which are the first level of subsequent ones that can be introduced by the interested party up to a final decision that can decree the interference between the marks in question. These procedures, therefore, can extend the completion of the registration process. Exam times vary according to the national reference office or protocol responsible for the registration procedure. Undoubtedly, the EUIPO European Union office is the one with the fastest procedures which also provide for the possibility of speeding up the procedure which can be reduced to less than six months to achieve registration in the absence of findings during the examination and / or objections following the publication of the application. In many foreign or European countries, there is an anteriority examination as an absolute requirement that determines the rejection of the application already in the examination and which is added to the possible dispute following the publication that should take place if the discretion of the examiner does not evaluates interference with earlier titles, evidently, similar. The exclusive rights, deriving from the granting of the registration concession, are valid exclusively in the territory of the State in which the registration took place or in the states adhering to the memorandum of understanding eventually adopted. Increasingly, for commercial reasons, it is essential to extend protection to export countries as well. In these cases it is possible to resort to a series of national registrations, to register a European Union trademark (EUTM) or an International trademark (Madrid Protocol). The consultants of the GD D’Alto studio are available to recommend the most appropriate procedure in order to protect the interests and geographical areas by optimizing costs, assisting you step by step throughout the procedure which in the case of especially foreign or international brands is particularly processed.
Our trademark services include
- prior art searches and related registrability opinions
- national and international patents and trade marks registering, managing and maintenance
- oppositions and actions against similar trademarks
- surveillance services on deposits of similar trademarks
- maturity management of brand portfolios
- transcripts relating to sales and/or licensing of trademarks
- historic trademark
- technical-legal reports
