We protect our clients' innovations, ideas, technologies, products and brands.
Our range of advice covers all aspects of intellectual property and unfair competition, in particular trademarks, designs, patents, copyrights, trade secrets, domains, issues of advertising law, licensing law, franchise law, as well as combating product piracy. Market leaders or start-ups, regional or international companies from a wide range of industries regularly trust us with handling complex litigation, supporting transactions, providing strategic portfolio advice and structuring and drafting IP agreements.
Our IP experts have decades of experience and have achieved exceptional results for our clients before courts, authorities and in negotiations. Our clients benefit from our expertise and our close relationships with the best IP law firms worldwide. Speaking engagements and publications on IP topics as well as involvement in international IP associations add to the excellent reputation of our IP team.
Business leaders regularly entrust us with their business-critical intellectual property matters. Our IP experts represent clients before all specialized courts in Austria as well as in the EU (EUIPO, Court of the European Union and CJEU). In patent disputes, we cooperate closely with the leading patent attorneys in the respective technical field. We are often instructed as part of international teams for blue-chip clients and are involved both in strategic advice prior to the commencement of contentious proceedings and in the joint multi-national defense or enforcement of IP rights. The constant exchange of experience with the best IP lawyers worldwide provides a high added value for our clients.
The value of IP assets, as manifested in the breadth and depth of an IP portfolio, can be a significant factor in transactions and is of considerable importance, for example, to start-ups and investors. Hardly any transaction gets by without careful IP due diligence and optimal structuring of the acquisition, sale or licensing of IP assets. Our experienced team keeps an eye on what is essential and is at your side to achieve the best possible outcome for you.
Companies need to carefully evaluate how to best protect, manage and use the IP assets and trade secrets in their business. The registration of trademarks requires experienced advice to get the maximum protection and full exploitation of its value potential. All too often, trademark applications do not make use of the full breath of protection available and are thus unnecessarily starting from a position of weakness right out of the gates. Our team is. focused on optimizing the value of your trademark from the outset. This is also the reason why the portfolio we manage includes some of the most valuable trademarks in the world.
The effective drafting and management of IP agreements is an essential factor in maximizing the value of IP and anticipating possible risks. IP contracts come into play in the context of the development, the granting of rights and transfer of IP, but also the delineation of competing IP rights. These agreements must be tailored to fit the respective business sectors and anticipate possible areas of conflict to avoid legal disputes in the future. Our experts help you steering clear of pitfalls and hurdles in the conception and drafting of your IP contract.
- Successful representation in three court instances in a business-critical and one of the first trade secret proceedings under the new legal regime (published under GZ 4 Ob 188/20f);
- Successful representation before the Austrian Supreme Court, the European Court of Justice and the Court of Justice of the European Union in a contentious trademark case on the genuine use of a trademark (published under GZ 4Ob237/17g, C-514/18 p, T-27/17);
- Support and advice to a renowned South African winery with high-priced wines against a low-priced product of the same name; by way of negotiation, a very favorable result was achieved for our client and litigation was avoided;
- Ongoing market monitoring of generic products for clients in the pharmaceutical sector;
- Advising and representing clients in employment remuneration claims before Austrian courts;
- Ongoing advice to a well-known manufacturer of household products on the design of sweepstakes and other advertising topics also in connection with influencer marketing;
- Representing a well-known Austrian furniture manufacturer in design and trademark matters, including successfully enforcing its most important word mark against an English company that used that word mark as a product name for a piece of furniture in its web shop;
- Ongoing advice and representation of a well-known sporting goods manufacturer in all unfair competition issues, including matters such as comparative advertising and defense of an alleged infringement of intellectual property rights by an unregistered sign, whereby a settlement favorable to our client was reached with the opposing party;
- Supporting a start-up company with a Software as a Service solution from the beginning, drafting the contracts with the IT developer, reviewing the website and drafting all relevant content on the website such as general terms and conditions, imprint, etc.
- Rights clearance of film titles for well-known US providers of film and TV series as well as ongoing trademark clearance services for several clients among those also a well-known international hotel chain;
- Advising a leading energy company on the drafting of a consortium agreement in the context of a funded research project and securing the IP rights for our client.