Litigation
The best way to resolve a dispute is out-of-court settlement. Xandra Law has developed an effective IP enforcement approach through negotiation and mediation. However, some cases are to be brought to the court room, and we gladly represent our clients as both plaintiffs and defendants in legal actions concerning all types of intellectual property in Russia and CIS countries.
Xandra Law’s team of certified lawyers is backed up by trademark and patent attorneys who join forces to offer perspective attack and defence strategies and actions in administrative bodies and courts. In Russia, for example, the list of authorities includes a Rospatent division – the Chamber for Patent Disputes, Federal Antimonopoly Service, commercial courts (including the High State Arbitration Court), the Intellectual Property Court, police and the Customs Office.
The scope of litigation matters we deal with embraces IP infringement, cybersquatting, counterfeit, competition law (unfair competition), unauthorized registration of IP in the name of agents and challenging decisions of the Patent and Trademark Office.
Attorneys represent litigant parties in civil actions, adopting a flexible approach to protecting their IP rights.
We also involve law enforcement organizations, when necessary, to promptly combat counterfeiting, and we hand over relevant information to the Customs offices in order to identify and stop counterfeit merchandise. In addition, Xandra Law’s attorneys regularly counsel clients concerning possible defensive and enforcement strategies for patents, trademarks, and broader issues.
- Information about the IP object
- Information about the required action (enforcement, CDL, consultation, appeal, lawsuit, etc.)
- Available details of the case and associated documents
- A Power of Attorney (formal requirements depend on the type of proceedings)
Enforcement of intellectual property rights
Infringers, imitators, unfair competitors, counterfeiters, cybersquatters, patent and brand trolls - those are the villains constantly bothering bona fide market players. Your ally number one is proper monitoring of infringements, number two being a reliable patent agency representing your rights before the IP authorities.
Getting hold of a registration certificate or a patent is rewarding, but it is only the beginning of making your intellectual property valuable. Proper post-registration surveillance of the market for the purpose of enforcement is crucial from two perspectives: protection of customers from low quality imitations and prevention of revenue and reputation damages for the IP owner. For trademarks, such actions also shield from dilution.
Enforcement procedure usually begins with a cease and desist letter, and in some cases diplomatic mediation suffices. If it does not, we offer balanced strategies of acting through court or antimonopoly authorities, calculate compensations to be charged from the defendants, work on persuasive arguments, order investigations from experts in the field, if required, and guide you through the whole process. We work with enforcement of all registrable and non-registrable according to the local legislation types of intellectual property, including trade secret misappropriation and copyright infringement.
We also act on the other side of the fence – we act on behalf of entities on the receiving side of claims. We seek ways to prove that no infringement has actually taken place, propose counter-action procedures, such as opposition or revocation, put forward peaceful settlement or co-existence proposals or decrease the amount of compensation within a court case.
Unfair competition
Today’s offline and online market is highly competitive, which is the driving force behind the global economy. The other side of the coin is tools applied by some players to win, and companies have to be aware: not all is fair in competition. Watching out for business rivals is crucial for timely spotting unfair competition and ceasing it.
Competitive edge should never ever be gained at the expense of others. Sometimes imitation of third-parties’ copyright, means of individualization, industrial designs, utility models and inventions is so convincing, it might entice consumers from actual manufacturers and lead to considerable losses. Another widespread type of unfair competition is obtaining rights for IP objects.
At Xandra Law we have an eye for detecting features of unfair competition and choosing suitable evidence that will be recognized by the competent authorities as sufficient for labelling adverse party’s tricky ways an act of unfair competition – if prior mediation does not yield satisfying results.
We also work with the violations of advertising legislation, which usually goes hand in hand with breach of competition law.
Trademark non-use cancellation
Use or let go: even when there are no strict use requirements for trademarks, a trademark that is not used can be cancelled by an interested party to clear the way for new applicants and avoid the fate of a dog in the manger.
Many jurisdictions do not require proof of trademark use either on the application stage, or after the trademark is registered. However, it is often stipulated that if a trademark has not been used for a set period (for example, three years) after registration, any interested party can cancel this trademark for non-use.
Xandra Law acts on both sides of non-use cancellation proceedings through both mediation and litigation.
Before involvement into the procedure, Xandra Law offers investigation of use as a tool for assessing the perspectives of cancellation, evaluates ways of peaceful arrangements advantageous for the client and analyses documents required for successfully representing the plaintiff or defendant in cancelling or keeping the trademark alive.