Enforcement

Companies invest immense resources in their designs and brand names and in the building of customer trust and goodwill in the marketplace. This could go to waste if they do not maintain and protect their designs, brand image, and rights in their marks (see Monitoring).

We represent our clients in:

Enforcement channels
A trademark owner who encounters a third party making unauthorized use of his/her trademark or design - must act. Should the trademark owner fail to take action, the mark might loose its main function: identifying the source of the goods or services. The consequence might be that the mark will become generic. A generic term belongs to everyone and cannot be monopolized. If the past owner of the once marks "Escalator" and "Frigidaire" would have enforced them properly when third parties started using them, they would still today be trademarks belonging to their owners and not generic terms that can be used freely by any company. Similarly, if the owner of a design or trademark finds his/her rights infringed, action must be taken or else the exclusive right will be harmed and the design/mark may fall into the public domain.

Litigation. As a preliminary step, and before bringing action to court, an investigator may be engaged to find out details about the infringer, the infringing activities and purchase example items of the copycats. A subsequent "cease & desist" letter sent to the infringer by the owner's lawyer might stop the infringement at an early stage. In other cases, especially in cases of willful copying, full scale litigation may be necessary, inclusive of filing for a temporary injunction and an Anton Pillar order (seizing the counterfeit merchandize from the infringer's premises). Israel Courts are willing to grant such orders under certain circumstances.

An alternative or additional route would be to utilize the police. Israel's Intellectual Property unit will commence investigation once a complaint is filed. It is recommended to accumulate as much information as possible (through investigation agencies) about the location of the counterfeit goods, the importer/manufacturer and purchase example items. In appropriate cases the police will conduct seizures. If there is sufficient evidence to prosecute, a lawsuit might be filed. The main advantage of criminal procedures administrated by the police is the low cost and threatening quality that serves to scare off small time infringers. Police raids may also be publicized, deterring other infringers from taking the risk of selling counterfeit goods.

Israel Customs Authorities stop shipments containing goods with registered trademarks, designs or copyright from entering Israel if the imported goods are suspect of being counterfeit. The property owner obtains information and can prevent the entry of counterfeit goods into Israel. Over the past years Israeli Customs has stopped large amounts of shipments and confiscated masses of counterfeit goods, among them clothing, footwear, gadgets and electronic appliances. The owner of the right may also act proactively by filing a request with Customs to seize future shipments containing  goods suspect of infringing trademark, design or copyright. Customs Authorities are usually very responsive to such requests and will take all the necessary steps to identify and stop the import of the infringing goods.

We will be happy to advise and propose courses of action for enforcing your intellectual property rights.