Trade Mark

The trade mark team at W.P. Thompson & Co. handles a large volume of trade mark applications both at the UKIPO for UK applications and at the OHIM for Community trade mark applications. With both of these offices no longer raising objections to applications on the basis of potentially conflicting earlier trade mark rights, the need for clients to raise objection by way of opposition, invalidity or revocation proceedings has increased greatly. We have been able to adapt and respond to this need by relying on the benefit of extensive experience in handling opposition matters, both as opponent and defendant, at the UKIPO and at OHIM at first instance, and subsequently before the various appeal tribunals.

The opposition period at both the UKIPO and OHIM arises pre-registration and, in both instances, is relatively short. However it represents an efficient route for preventing registration of a potentially conflicting third party mark. The decision reached at first instance can have consequences for future proceedings and so the potential benefits of opposition should be maximised through the benefit of knowledge and experience such as that offered by the attorneys in the W.P. Thompson & Co. trade mark team.

Should such procedures not be available to bring the trade mark rights into question, our clients can rely also on our wealth of experience in revocation and invalidity proceedings to assess what further options might be available to bring the trade mark right at issue into question.