Trademark Registration
Inspection of Trademarks Locally, Internationally and Providing an Obligatory Legal Opinion
Our office issues legal opinions, in the framework of which a check of trademarks is conducted, both locally and internationally - a full international inspection of the trademark, in order to establish what is the legal status of that trademark or group of trademarks.
The legal opinions determine the legality of the use in the trademark, both locally and internationally. Furthermore, the legal opinions include the various options to register the trademark locally and internationally, the list of the competitors which use the trademark, as well as the legal significances.
After an inclusive inspection in the framework of the preparation of the legal opinion, one can weigh the registration possibility in each country, and also the costs of the registration of the trademark locally, in the USA, in Europe and in Asia.
Registeration of a Trademark and Tradename Locally and Internationally
Hodorov Law Firm offers its services for registering trademarks locally and in other countries.
In order to register a trademark, first a local request for registration must be submitted. Only afterwards can the trademark be registered internationally through WIPO - the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Nevertheless, after submitting the request locally, the petitioner can immediately submit a request to register the trademark internationally, and there is absolutely no need to wait for the approval of the local request.
WIPO will in turn act to register the trademark in all the countries that the petitioner has wished the trademark to be registered in.
Linked articles:
How to Register a Trademark or Trade Name
Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
Non-disclosure agreement is an agreement made by parties to negotiate a cooperation, a sell of asset, between an employer and employee, etc. Basically, the agreement is made to keep the company's secrets safe from a person who might use the information he received during the negotiations with the company.
Proprietary and Inventions Assignment Agreement (PIAA)
A Proprietary and Inventions Assignment Agreement is intended for every software developer, engineer, vendor, supplier or employee with whom the company intends to have a business relationship, and its purpose is to keep the ownership in any intellectual property the vendor develops. Copyrights, patents, trade secrets, designs, development of business plans, presentations, etc - anything related to intellectual property must stay your property, and it must be agreed upon the parties beforehand, by the PIAA.
The PIAA must be formulated exactly so as to fit any vendor or supplier with which you would wish to work, without the need to add or change details in the agreement.
During the company life, many PIAA agreements (in the same version) are being signed between the company and vendors, and these agreements are critical in the moment of the company's sell by the owners to a purchaser (Exit). Thus is because the purchaser wants to be sure, by provable facts, that no ex-vendor or ex-employee intends to steal the company's secrets and to form a competing-company, or alternatively to sue the company for unauthorized use of intellectual property, which now he claims to be his own.
Intellectual Property Purchase Agreement
An Intellectual Property Purchase Agreement is a unique agreement. It might be an agreement to purchase secret information. or to purchase a trademark or a tradename (names such as Coca Cola, Nike, Microsoft, etc). It may be a Patent Purchase Agreement, and sometimes it is a Copyright Purchase Agreement. The common denominator for all of these is that they are non-tangible assets ("intellectual") and their treatment is totally different than tangible assets.
Sometimes the purchase of the trademark can be classipied as Goodwill purcahse, and so to have positive implications regarding taxation of the purchase.