Searches and watching

Searches

Intellectual property searches are of key importance both at the moment of choosing the type, scope and territory for industrial property protection and in the day-to-day operation of companies and enterprises.

Searches concerning various objects of industrial property (inventions, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks) allow, in particular:

to discover the existence of potentially colliding rights of third parties which may constitute an obstacle to obtaining protection or to the use of a given solution and/or trademark on the market,
to establish current development trends in particular fields of industry, and
to review solutions and/or trademarks already submitted for protection by competitors.

We offer comprehensive services in conducting searches of various types of industrial property rights along with analysis of their results.

Furthermore, we provide full service with regard to searches of industrial property rights abroad with the help of well-proven foreign companies which specialize in conducting multi-market searches and which offer preferential fees for our Clients.

Patent searches

Patent searches allow for the assessment of the searched technical solution in many aspects and are essential with regard to the preparation of patent applications, determining the scope of protection for a given solution, monitoring the activities of competitors, verification of patentability of the searched solution, developing business strategies and negotiating commercial transactions concerning industrial property rights.

We provide the highest quality services, i.a. in the scope of:

prior art searches,
patentability searches,
patent legal status searches,
searches for the scope of patent protection.

Trademark searches

Trademark searches are indispensable when choosing a right brand/logo or other type of sign as a key element for distinguishing goods, services or company in the market.

A trademark search allows to determine whether there are earlier trademarks colliding with the chosen sign, i.e. trademarks which may give rise to opposition and constitute an obstacle in obtaining registration or to the use of the sign in the market.

We offer services in the field of trademark availability searches, including:

identical trademark searches

The trademark identity search is focused on the verbal layer of the searched trademark.

This is the least expensive and quickest way to determine the possible existence of applications/registrations of colliding trademarks identical with the searched trademark.

This type of search allows for the elimination of evidently risky signs already in the early stages in the developing of protection strategy. However, it does not provide full information on the chances of obtaining protection for the searched trademark, as it does not include the search for similar trademarks which may also constitute obstacles to having protection granted for the searched trademark or to its use on the market.

trademark availability searches (similarity searches), including searches of graphic signs (logos) and three-dimensional signs.

A trademark availability search makes it possible to establish the existence of earlier applications or registrations of trademarks identical or similar to the searched trademark and intended to mark similar goods and/or services. Earlier colliding trademarks may constitute obstacles in having protection granted for the searched trademark or to its use on the market.

A verbal trademark availability search is focused on a verbal trademark or a verbal layer of a trademark of a mixed type, e.g. a verbal/figurative one. It makes it possible to establish the existence of earlier colliding trademarks with respect to phonetic, visual, semantic or conceptual identity or similarity of the searched trademark and its use for designating identical or similar goods and services.

The figurative trademark availability search is focused on a graphic sign or a graphic layer of a trademark of a mixed type, e.g. a verbal/figurative one or a three-dimensional one, classified according to the Vienna Classification (International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks). It allows the determination of existence of earlier colliding trademarks with respect to their visual similarity to the searched trademark. Such searches are usually much more time-intensive than verbal trademark availability searches.

The three-dimensional trademark availability search, similarly as the figurative trademark availability search, is carried out on the basis of the classification of graphic elements according to the Vienna Classification. It allows for finding earlier trademarks (three-dimensional or figurative) that are colliding on the visual level with the searched three-dimensional trademark.

In the case of figurative and three-dimensional marks, it is also advisable to carry out an additional separate industrial design search since industrial designs may be protected under the categories of “graphic symbols” and “logos”, and thus they may constitute an obstacle to have protection granted for the searched trademark or to its use on the market.

The standard territorial scope of search includes trademarks protected in the territory of Poland, applied for or registered under national, Community and international procedures, with designation of Poland or the European Union.

We offer services tailored to our Clients’ needs and requirements, including searches supplemented with the analysis of data available on the Internet which is helpful in determining whether a given sign, although not applied for registration or registered as a trademark, has been used on the market which might well lead to a serious conflict in trade.

We offer also internet domain searches.

Our search reports present full details of the colliding trademarks, conclusions resulting from the search and our assessment of the chances of obtaining protection for the searched trademark.

We guarantee excellent quality and reliability of our searches characterized by:

precise definition of search criteria,
the use of specialist databases, including commercial databases,
the use of our in-house developed software to select the most relevant, results and
search reports carefully adjusted to various needs and preferences of our Clients.

Our professional expertise and vast experience are appreciated not only by individual customers and domestic and foreign companies, but also by renown foreign companies specializing in comprehensive multi-market trademark searches.

Furthermore, we provide full service with regard to searches of industrial property rights abroad with the help of well-proven foreign companies which specialize in conducting multi-market searches and which offer preferential fees for our Clients.

Industrial design searches

Registration rights for earlier industrial designs protecting the appearance of a product may constitute an obstacle to have protection granted for a figurative or three-dimensional trademark or for an industrial design, and may hinder manufacturing, importing or selling a product with a specific appearance.

The industrial design search helps to reduce the above risks by finding earlier industrial designs that are potentially colliding with the searched design.

The subject of design search is usually the proposed appearance of a product or packaging, e.g. the design of a chair, the appearance of a bottle etc., since previously registered designs may constitute an obstacle to the sale of a product with a particular appearance or a product in a particular packaging.

To ensure that there is no risk of collision, it is recommended to supplement the industrial design search with a trademark application/registration search.

The industrial design search is conducted for a design classified in accordance with the Locarno Classification (The International Classification of Industrial Designs).

The standard search covers industrial designs protected in the territory of Poland, i.e. designs registered under the national procedure, the Community procedure or the international procedure with designation of Poland or the European Union.

We offer services tailored to our Clients’ needs and requirements, including searches supplemented with the analysis of data available on the Internet. This is helpful in determining whether the searched design, although not applied for/registered as an industrial design, has been used on the market which might well lead to a serious conflict in trade.

The search report presents full details of the colliding industrial designs found, conclusions drawn from the search and our assessment of the chances for having protection granted for the searched design.

We provide also comprehensive services with regard to industrial design searches conducted abroad with the help of well-proven foreign companies which specialize in conducting multi-market searches and which offer preferential fees for our Clients.

SEARCHES BY TITLE HOLDER/ENTITY SEARCH

Searches by title holder (according to the applicant or exclusive right holders) are particularly helpful for monitoring the activities of competitors.

Such searches enable to determine which kind of industrial property objects (inventions, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks) are in the area of interest of a given competing entity.

The report on a search by title holder presents a summary of basic data of detected industrial property objects applied for or for which exclusive rights have already been granted and belong to the examined entity.

We offer services tailored to the Clients’ needs and requirements, e.g. appropriately adapted formats of search reports or extension of the scope of searching, e.g. by additional Internet searches.

We also provide comprehensive services in the field of searches by title holder abroad with the help of well-proven foreign law firms and entities specializing in conducting such research worldwide and offering preferential rates to our Clients.

Trademark watching

The Patent Office of the Republic of Poland does not examine new trademark applications in terms of relative obstacles to the grant of protection right which would result from collisions with earlier identical and similar trademarks.

The burden of securing effective protection of an earlier registered trademark, by preventing the registration of later similar or identical trademarks in the name of other entities, lies on the holder of registration right for said earlier trademark.

The holder may file an opposition against the registration of a later trademark within 3 months as from the date of publication of the mention about the application for said later trademark in the Bulletin of the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland (Biuletyn Urzędu Patentowego; BUP). The trademark watching is an extremely helpful tool allowing for the detection of trademark applications potentially colliding with the watched trademark.

We offer trademark watching service aided by an in-house developed software.

The trademark watching system is partly based on automatic search algorithms. Our in-house developed software enables conversion of obtained data and generation of bulk reports adjusted to our Clients’ needs and guidelines.

The watching service involves providing our Clients with monthly reports indicating applications for trademarks detected in a given month, potentially colliding with the Client's monitored trademarks. The watching report contains data on the detected trademarks together with information about the official deadline for submitting a notice of opposition. At the Clients’ request the report may also contain a preliminary opinion about viability of potential opposition.