Product Piracy

Product piracy is understood as being the mostly identical or barely distinguishable imitation of a particular product.  It mostly originates from low-wage countries, in particular if there is no intellectual property protection such as patent protection, trademark protection, design protection or similar is existing.  The losses incurred across the world by the original manufacturers due to such plagiarism is estimated at tens of billions each year.

We advise our clients both in the prevention of and in defence against product piracy.  As regards prevention we advise our clients to what extent patent protection, trademark protection or registered design protection applies to the product in question, and we propose ways in which changes can be made to the products so that protection by means of the aforementioned rights can be obtained.  In the defence against product piracy we do not only endeavour the competent Courts for example to obtain provisional injunctions, in particular on trade fairs, but also we engage the customs authorities for the purpose of enforcing confiscations and destruction.  We have had good experiences with confiscations inland and in other European countries, and so here offer our clients assistance with background of experience.