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When businesses merge with or acquire other businesses, the challenge for IP professionals doesn’t stop once the associated rights have been securely transferred across. There is also the question of how to brand the newly merged business, and its products and services.
Can a global brand name limit its life? It's easier said than done, writes Claire Jones.
Planning is crucial to the safe transfer of an IP portfolio no matter the timescales involved. Minimise the impact on your business and resources with these five steps for recording change of ownership.
An organisation's value is no longer based simply on its tangible or fixed assets; more often than not, it is the company’s intangible assets, including brand reputation and goodwill, that create its market value.
IP licensing can provide companies with additional (or core) revenue streams, enable them to raise brand awareness and enhance their reputation, and extend their brands into new markets and geographies. However, if IP ownership or validity is unclear, it can also pose significant financial and business risk.
As e-cigarette use grows, so do the dangers of trademark infringement for well-known brands, as Trademark Attorney Claire Jones explains.
When seeking to expand into new markets or territories, it’s important to ensure IP protection is first in place. Dr Peter Wilson sets out the IP elements to consider when developing or updating an export strategy.
It is crucial to act promptly when submitting objections (or oppositions) to challenge potentially conflicting trademark applications. But, what is the opposition procedure – and how can brand owners make best use of it to protect their trademarks? Vanessa Harrow outlines the process.
Chantal Koller, Managing Director – Trademarks at Novagraaf Switzerland, shares some of the approaches used by leading Swiss companies to achieve both brand dominance and market success.
We recently set out guidance on marking products with patent and design numbers, including examining the benefits and risks of doing so. Here, we look at packaging and product marking from the trademark perspective.
The recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU represents yet another knock back for Nestlé in its attempt to prove its chocolate bar shape distinctive enough to warrant trademark protection. Novagraaf’s Frouke Hekker examines what the judgment means for 3D shape marks and the requirements for proof of use in the EU.
As social media becomes an everyday part of corporate marketing practice, there has been a notable increase in hashtag-based brand names. Stormzy’s label #Merky Records (as listed with hashtag at Companies House) is just one example of this growing trend. But how registrable are such names as trademarks?