TRADEMARKS 

Presentation

Trademarks have a very long history, one can think, for example, of blacksmiths who used to mark the armaments they were preparing for the soldiers of the Roman Empire, with their distinctive signs, and today they are an extremely important element of modern economy and have become a strategic asset for companies.

MP supports its clients by providing consultancy from the concept phase of the trademark, with prior-art research aimed at avoiding the selection of a distinctive sign that could interfere with prior patents of third parties, to its filing in Italy and in the world, to subsequent judicial and extrajudicial defense and support in trademark protection strategies through customs surveillance management in Italy and throughout the world and also through investigation and protection programs created specifically for the client.

What is a trademark?

A trademark is a sign capable of being represented graphically, in particular: words, images, figures, graphics, colours, digits, colour shades, sounds etc. provided it is suitable for distinguishing a product and/or service of an undertaking with respect to others. 

        
What requirements should it have?

A trademark must have:
distinctive capacity: signs consisting of generic names of a product/service cannot be registered, for example, watches cannot be registered for distinguishing a watch;
novelty: it must not have b
een previously used or filed by third parties, the Ferrari trademark cannot be registered, for example, for selling cars; legitimacy: it must not be contrary to law, public order and morality.

When can the sign ® and the sign TM be applied?

In Italy, the circle with the registered "R" can only be added to the trademark after the Italian Patent and Trademark Office or the EUIPO has issued the certificate of registration.
In the period between the filing and the registration, the sign ™ (Trade Mark)  can be applied.