ETE LAW OFFICE

Trademark Counselling

• Trademark budget development
• Developing brand usage guidelines
• Training of marketing/sales/accounting personnel on proper brand usage

Trademark Clearance

• Simple searches

• Comprehensive searches

Trademark Procurement and Prosecution 

• Developing global trademark filing strategies
• Preparing and filing trademark applications
• Responding to office actions
• Appeals from application refusals

Trademark Maintenance

• Global IP docketing includes worldwide, systematic tracking and management of critical deadlines, tasks, and data for an organization's entire intellectual property (IP) portfolio across different countries, using specialized software to ensure timely filings, renewals, and compliance with varied international laws

• Recording trademark registrations with customs
• Trademark audits to assess gaps in portfolio and to prevent perpetuating renewals for marks no longer in use
• Recordation of assignments, licensing, changes of IP assets with the UK IPO

Transactional

• Trademark due diligence
• Reviewing transaction documents and providing strategic advises.

Patent Counselling

• Patent budget development
• Develop strategies to maximize patent protection
• Analyze patentability of inventions not yet protected
• Counsel clients about leveraging domestic and international patent rights

 

Patent Clearance

• Assist with searches of prior art and survey competitors’ patent activities

 

Patent Procurement and Prosecution 

• Developing global patent filing strategies
• Preparing and filing patent applications
• Represent clients in reissue, reexamination, inter partes, post-grant, and derivation proceedings
• Appeals from application refusals
• Assert or defend patents with respect to infringement claims or other disputes

 

Patent Maintenance

• Manage patent portfolios
• Global IP docketing
• Patent audit
• Provide transactional advice on acquisitions, transfer agreement

 

​​​​​​​Transactional

• Patent due diligence
• Reviewing transaction documents and providing strategic advise

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What you can patent

• new - it must not have been made publicly available anywhere in the world
• inventive - for example, it cannot be an obvious change to something that already exists
• either something that can be made and used, a technical process, or a method of doing something

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What you cannot patent

• literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works
• a method of medical treatment or diagnosis
• a discovery, scientific theory or mathematical method
• processes like cross-breeding animals or varieties of plants
• software that has a ‘non-technical’ purpose

Plant Breeder Rights (PBR) Counseling 

• PBR budget development
• Counsel clients about leveraging domestic and international PBR rights

PBR Procurement and Prosecution 

• Developing global PBR filing strategies
• Preparing and filing PBR applications
• Represent clients in reissue, reexamination, inter partes, post-grant, and derivation proceedings
• Appeals from application refusals
• Assert or defend patents with respect to infringement claims or other disputes

PBR Maintenance

• Manage PBR portfolios
• Global PBR docketing
• Provide transactional advice on acquisitions, license agreement

Transactional

• PBR due diligence
• Reviewing transaction documents and providing strategic advise

Who can apply for PBR

You can apply for PBR if you’ve:

• bred or developed a plant variety
• been chosen by the breeder as their successor

What plant varieties you can get rights for

You can get rights for new plant varieties, including genetically modified varieties. You must get consent from the relevant organisation before you apply for PBR for a genetically modified plant if:  

• it needs to be DUS tested in the UK  
• you want to market the variety in the UK

You should include a copy of your consent in your application for PBR.

You can register your variety in the UK even if you’ve already registered it in another country. Your UK cover will be backdated to the start of the first protection you were granted.

You cannot get rights for a variety that has been sold or used for commercial use:

• in the UK for more than 1 year before you apply
• outside the UK for more than 4 years before you apply (6 years for trees and vines

Labeling for apparel, footwear & accessories in the UK.

 

If you’re planning to sell products in the UK, they must comply with local labelling requirements.

 

Labels are mandatory for goods intended for sale to the end consumer.

 

National authorities can check textile products for conformity with the information displayed on the label at any stage of the marketing chain, such as:

when requesting customs clearance

at distributor’s warehouses

at wholesale or retail outlets

 

Our legal team comprises IP lawyers with extensive experience in the UK. High level of expertise ensures that our clients benefit from a combination of quality legal advice and pragmatic commercial advice if required.

 

By understanding the local regulations can ensure compliance, protect your brand, and gain the trust of your customers.

 

The consequences of including incorrect or misleading information on a garment can include significant fines, not to mention damage to your brand’s reputation.

 

Responsibility for labelling

 

It is the responsibility of the manufacturer or importer to ensure that footwear is correctly labelled and to supply accurate labels that are not misleading.

 

It is the responsibility of the retailer to ensure that the footwear they sell is labelled correctly, in accordance with the Regulations.

 

It is therefore recommended that retailers have a system in place for checking footwear labelling before it goes on sale, and that these checks are recorded.

 

For more information please contact us.

 

We can guide you through every step — from the general counselling on labeling requirements in the UK to preparing fully compliant labels.