Trade-marks and branding
A strong brand is the key to successful marketing of a company’s products and services to maintain its market position. Also, trade-mark protection can extend beyond brands, to cover logos, product or container shapes and packaging. With a trade-mark registration being the only right of intellectual property that is potentially eternal, this right is indeed the keystone of any market success. The strength of a trade-mark rests largely upon its protection and enforcement, and as such, vigilance in the marketplace is paramount.
Our Trade-marks team, comprised of litigators, has the depth of expertise and wealth of experience that organizations from start-ups to multinationals rely upon to select, register, commercialize and enforce trade-marks that protect their brands.
Our team includes trade-mark lawyers and agents who assist our clients with the protection and enforcement of their trade-mark rights, with a view to maximizing the protection available while avoiding needless expense. We also have an established and extensive network of foreign associates around the world with whom we work closely to ensure effective and efficient protection of our clients’ interests both in Canada and abroad.
We offer you advice on
- registrability (availability and validity) searches and opinions
- infringement opinions
- filing and prosecution of applications to register trade-marks in Canada
- coordination, supervision and management of registration of trade-marks abroad
- obtaining complementary protection, whether by way of copyright or industrial design registrations
- opposition proceedings
- enforcement proceedings, including extraordinary proceedings, such as seizures (also known as “Anton Piller” or “John Doe” Orders, which can be executed across Canada and in which we have developed a particular expertise), injunctions and liaising with public enforcement
- licensing
- trade-mark transactions
- trade-mark portfolio management