Transactional: IP

Intangible assets, innovation and creativity are paramount to our clients in the technology, data aggregation and life sciences sectors. Protection of intellectual property and company reputation and know-how is a growing trend in the CEE region as the economy becomes more mature.
Innovation
Our IP lawyers are registered IP representatives on national and EU level. We advise our clients on the patentability status of their inventions, draft applications of eligible candidates, and represent them before the Bulgarian Patent Office on patents and utility models filings.
Trademarks
Relative strength of trademarks is another area which is routinely underestimated by clients. Prior to filing for protection, we advise on the originality and distinctiveness of brands and logos against the national and ECJ court practice and mitigate the risks from relying on weak trademarks. We offer advice to our clients on how to spread their financial resources to best match protection coverage to business goals (choosing the EU trademark over selected-countries protection, navigating the Madrid system and assessing the advantage of filing for a national trademark in some countries, e.g. China).
Technology Licensing
Technology (cross-)licensing is another area of our expertise for which there is a high demand. Navigating the EU and various member states' copyright regimes, open-source specifics, and recently enhanced rightsholders protection in the context of the Digital Single Market is a challenging task.
Copyright, Publishers Rights and Database Protection
We combine excellent knowledge of the underlying court practice with hands-on experience and tech savviness to come up with flexible solutions in areas like: licences compatibility, content licensing, database protection, end-user license agreements, sourcing agreements, and many others.
Trade Secret
Recently, the EU introduced an enhanced trade secret protection framework which was transposed in national laws. Businesses are getting accustomed to installing by-design measures to identify, label and protect their valuable business processes and know-how from competitors. Clever drafting of non-compete and confidentiality clauses and comprehensive definition of what constitutes trade secret for each company can go a long way, provided they are introduced well ahead of potential unauthorised disclosures.
Franchise and Distribution
Our IP experts naturally team up with commercial and competition lawyers to provide thorough advice on franchise or distribution agreements to clients owning valuable national or multi-national brands.
Knowledge
Key contact
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Zhulieta Mandazhieva Details