Of Trademarks, Designs And Other IP Rights

When developing or refining a product, including its branding, a lot of time and money are invested in creating something unique that customers will need and love. To protect this financial and creative investment, legislators have decided to grant certain monopoly rights or intellectual property (IP) rights. So, how do you determine the appropriate type of protection for your product? In our blog (link) we have mainly discussed trademark protection. But trademark law is broader than you might expect. Besides the "name" of a product, other features such as the shape, the colouring or a sound can be protected as long as they are recognised as an indication of origin and no absolute ground for refusal, like the technical functionality of the feature, applies. Still, trademark law "merely" protects indications of origin. Fortunately, there are also other IP rights that should be considered as part of a protection strategy.