Protection of rights for trademarks and other industrial property objects
A trademark (mark for goods and services) is a designation by which goods and services of one person differ from the goods and services of others.
The main purpose of the trademark is distinctiveness, which is the main cause of infringement of these rights. That’s why, so often, the most famous and most popular brands in the world are objects of violation.
Today, a trademark is one of the most popular and commonly used objects of intellectual property in the world. Well-known companies and worldwide corporations are making tremendous efforts to protect their legitimate rights and interests for the trademarks. This situation is understandable, because today, the trademarks are the most popular targets for offenders.
Violation of the TM holders’ rights is any infringement of their rights, including committing without holder’s consent the actions which require such consent.
There are different types of mechanisms of trademark protection in Ukraine, in particular:
- Pre-trial: sending cease and desist letters, letters of complaints and warnings addressed to the offender, with the purpose of notifying the offender rights for intellectual property object, their legal status, offer a solution of the problem and prevent a repeat of the violations in the future, negotiations with violators to stop violations and resolve the situation that has occurred.
- Jurisdictional: includes pre-trial with following cooperation with state bodies authorized by the law to act in order to protect rights.
- Trial (judicial): involves resolving disputes concerning infringement or non-recognition of rights for trademarks in court. The law provides the following ways to protect these rights: the recognition of exclusive rights, the recognition of the contract invalid as to the trademark’s rights, stopping any actions which might violate the rights, including removing from the product or its packaging unlawfully used trademark or designation which looks so much like the real trademark that they can be confused; restoration of the situation that existed before the violation of law, compensation of financial and other damages caused by illegal use of intellectual property object, moral compensation (non-material), recognition of the illegality of the decision of the state body etc.
- “Criminal” legal mechanisms for the protection of intellectual property rights: provides for bringing offenders to criminal responsibility if such offenses can be qualified as a criminal offense (sign of this are: repeated offenses; purposely causing the holder of the rights a large or very large material loss).
The specialists of UARA provide legal assistance during all stages of the process of the protection of the mentioned rights.