Trade Mark Oppositions
We will assist you in dealing with potentially conflicting third party rights, providing a cost-effective, business-driven solution.
We can, for example, run worldwide trade mark watches for your core brands, which cover all classes for identical mark protection and core nominated classes for similar-mark protection.
If we encounter a conflicting mark, we try to avoid you incurring the costs of a formal opposition wherever possible. For example, we might recommend that we should request an amendment of the scope of the application, and perhaps seek an undertaking about the applicant’s use of the mark. In any case, we aim to facilitate your decision making so that any approach to the applicant may be made in good time before the opposition deadline.
We put things into perspective by looking at the filing pattern of the applicant, and the scope of the specifications they have filed. There are sometimes clear conflicts where preventing the applicant’s registration is in your interests, and in those circumstances we will recommend filing an opposition. Once the opposition is on file, however, we will continue to attempt to reach a pragmatic settlement, to keep costs low.
