Trademark law

“Strong brands give companies a lasting competitive advantage or, in the words of Warren Buffett, a moat that protects business performance and ensures long-term profitability. From the consumer’s point of view, brands are beacons that make products distinguishable and support purchasing decisions.

The indisputable economic advantages of a brand require as a first step the protection of the brand and as further steps its ongoing monitoring, supplementation, defense and international expansion. Every year, more than 70,000 trademarks are registered with the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA). To ensure that your trademark is protected, it must be registered and monitored with expert knowledge in order to create a structure that will not only survive the registration procedure but, if possible, will also support your business success for decades.

Our office is intensively involved in trademark law, both nationally and internationally, and provides clients with comprehensive strategic and legal support.

Here you will find an overview of our trademark protection services:

  • trademark registration
  • trademark research
  • trademark strategy
  • Enforcement and defense of claims
  • Trademark monitoring
  • Trademark renewal
  • Trademark licenses


Trademark registration proceedings

What added value does competent legal advice during the application process offer? Building a strong and, in the event of a conflict, durable trademark begins even before the application form is submitted, namely with the determination of the client’s interests, the conflicting rights of third parties and the appropriate definition of the content of the application.

In consultations, it becomes apparent time and again that clients underestimate the distinctiveness requirements imposed by the trademark offices on the one hand, while on the other hand they only perceive a small segment of the range of variation in the subject matter of the application. Against this background, it is not surprising that completely or

largely advice-free application services, which leave such essential decisions to the clients themselves, produce a disproportionately higher number of rejections and subsequent problems in the form of opposition proceedings and trademark litigation than well thought-out trademark applications.

If an opposition is filed against the registration by a third party, the registration procedure automatically leads to opposition proceedings in which – similar to court proceedings – the facts and legal positions must be presented in formalized pleadings. There is no need to explain that the quality of legal representation is of considerable importance in opposition proceedings.


Trademark litigation

In recent years, we have been able to conclude a number of high-profile trademark disputes in the interests of our clients.

As can be seen from the amounts in dispute taken as a basis by the courts, trademark disputes are of considerable economic significance for the companies involved. Changing a company name, abandoning a product line or changing an advertising campaign regularly involves not only a great deal of work, but also a heavy cost burden. The emotions that accompany brand processes are correspondingly high.
Anyone who wants to rely on the alleged arbitrariness of the courts in trademark litigation is making things too easy for themselves. In Germany, trademark disputes are assigned to highly specialized courts by the so-called concentration power of Section 140 (2) of the German Trademark Act. These courts can be met with the expectation that they are masters of their craft. If you want to meet these courts on an equal footing, you must distinguish themselves through a clear presentation of the facts and a cogent and comprehensible presentation of the legal situation.

This describes our approach to trademark litigation and pre-litigation warning letter proceedings. If you entrust us with your case, you can count on a well-considered and detailed approach. In addition, we attach particular importance to the rapid processing of trademark cases and the rapid enforcement of the client’s claims, as this is usually a matter of great urgency.

The editors of BrandEins included us in the list of the best competition law firms in Germany since 2021.


Our lawyers are at your disposal as contact persons in trademark law.