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ip & unfair competition
Schoenherr's intellectual property and unfair competition experts provide full ip coverage throughout the CEE region.
"An outstanding firm offering all-inclusive IP advice."
A holistic and business-oriented approach to brands, designs, inventions, creations, know-how and the related areas of advertising, media, sports and entertainment is key to finding efficient and sustainable solutions for clients. This is the approach of the intellectual property (ip) team of Schoenherr, a highly specialised and internationally regarded group of lawyers – all of them truly dedicated to ip and all of them recognised experts within the ip community.
The group offers full ip coverage via the Schoenherr international offices throughout the CEE region. Closely linked with specialists of other Schoenherr teams (such as regulatory, competition, life sciences, civil law and new technologies) the ip team offers clients quick, tailor-made solutions for their demands in the increasingly complex environment of protecting, marketing, defending and managing intellectual property.
protecting your ideas
Based on the experience of more than six decades of protecting ip rights around the globe, the Schoenherr ip team supports and guides clients all the way from the protection of the first idea (be it a new brand, a technical solution, a software, a design, a creative performance or a business method) to a set of registered and unregistered ip rights ensuring the best protection for the clients' business. This may include a tailor-made protection strategy, secrecy measures, clearance searches for conflicting rights and national, EU-wide or international registrations of trademarks and designs.
marketing your product
The Schoenherr ip team is committed to understanding the client's business, products and marketing strategies. With this understanding, they advise clients in all legal aspects of communication and marketing (in particular labelling, product appearance, marketing campaigns and competition strategies). They also provide support in relation to:
enforcing your rights
When infringements come up or the validity of ip rights is challenged, the Schoenherr ip team enforces its clients' rights efficiently out of court and if necessary in administrative, civil and criminal proceedings in court, including European instances and – via a comprehensive network of specialised law firms – also in jurisdictions outside Schoenherr's coverage. Moreover, the ip team regularly conducts domain name proceedings nationally or via UDRP.
managing your assets
Simply registering ip rights is not enough. A powerful ip portfolio needs diligent care (updating the lists of services and goods and the territorial scope of protection as a company develops its business, internal ip manuals and courses to safely use IPRs avoiding, e.g. dilution of the brand, and providing ip due diligence, licensing in/out, 24/7 online access to our updated database of the client's IPRs, etc.). The ip team is happy to take care of your ip portfolio and to provide "IP Lifecycle Management".
our services
- advertising
- anti-piracy
- art
- border detention
- brand development
- copyright
- designs
- domain names
- ip litigation
- ip transactional work
- know-how protection
- licensing
- new media
- patents
- prosecution (trademarks and designs)
- research and development agreements
- software
- trademarks
- trade secrets
- unfair commercial practices
news
blog
Sports & Trademarks: The opportunities and legal aspects of a symbiotic relationship
The FIS Alpine Ski World Championships in Saalbach 2025 have just concluded, and the FIS Nordic Ski World Championships in Trondheim are just around the corner. This is the perfect moment to take a closer look at the connection between sports and brands in the sports business. Clubs and federations use their brands to generate vital revenue, athletes register personal brands that set them apart from the competition, and companies leverage sporting events, teams and athletes to activate and spread their brand messages. With continuous innovation and growth in the sports business, the legal safeguarding of such collaborations is becoming increasingly complex. How does a brand become a protected trademark?
roadmap
Latest developments regarding registered IP rights
Whenever a company starts doing business – or extends its business – it should consider whether its assets, competitive advantage and unique selling proposition will be protected by registered IP rights. Likewise, an existing business scope should be regularly reviewed or audited to identify whether adequate IP protection is in place, in line with the company's evolving needs and the currently available legal protection options. And registering registrable IP rights is usually a precondition for considering them as intangible assets of the company.
roadmap
Licensing agreements over European patents: national validation for Bulgaria
Patent litigation cases are gaining traction in the CEE region, with a notable emergence of cases in Bulgaria post COVID-19. This trend presents an opportunity to preliminarily assess the enforceability of IP rights held by licensees of European patents. This applies to both companies operating within integrated business models and independent licensees. The enforceability of European patent licence agreements hinges on compliance with both EU regulations and national laws.
recognitions
awards and excellent rankings
Our Austrian IP team has been recognised for their exceptional work over the past year, winning the "Austria Trademark Litigation Firm of the Year" award at the Global IP Awards by WTR and IAM.
This achievement is further underscored by the team's consistently excellent IP rankings in Chambers and Partners, Legal 500, JUVE Verlag and Managing IP.
trademark & design management
Schoenherr has more than 60 years of experience in the administration and enforcement of trademarks and designs, supporting clients in trademark administration and management, design litigation and more.
know-how
authored books
An essential part of our work - besides legal advice of course - is also writing academic works. We consider fundamental topics such as trademark law, and regularly update our publications when relevant innovations arise. In addition, we also analyse newly emerging trademark-related topics which often come about in times of digitalisation.
team
our ip team
Meet the team of international ip experts, specified in intellectual property and unfair competition matters.