Industrial Designs

PATENTICA’s patent attorneys deal with design application prosecution from filing to registration, maintenance through renewal, recording changes and licenses, responding to Office Actions, defending and contesting designs through oppositions and addressing infringements, counterfeit and unfair competition cases in Russia, CIS countries and abroad.

We also help to overcome Notifications of refusal issued in relation to international designs filed via the Hague System, conduct clearance and freedom-to-operate searches and provide fully-fledged design portfolio management strategies.

As an example, here are the basics of industrial design patents in Russia:

5 years

Design patents are valid for 5 years. The term can be extended repeatedly for 5 years for a total of 25 years.

12-months’ grace period

A 12-months’ novelty grace period for filing an application is allowed after the original disclosure of a design before an application must be filed for its registration.

Several variants

One application can contain several variants of one design or a group of designs forming a set of articles – on the condition of compliance with the requirement of unity.

Trademarks

A wide range of company’s identifiers can become trademarks: a word, image, logo, 3D mark, smell, colour, position mark, hologram, music tracks, short video – the list goes on, allowing businesses to protect their identity and enhance its value. A registered trademark is a weapon against infringement, unfair competition, counterfeit and dilution. Furthermore, a trademark is an indispensable part of a franchise agreement, which is one of the leading tools in modern economics.

PATENTICA provides a comprehensive range of trademark services covering the following areas:

Filing&Office Actions

in Russia, the CIS and adjacent countries (including the Madrid system)

Searches

both preliminary and post-registration (monitoring)

Provisional refusals

under the Madrid system in Russia, the CIS and adjacent countries

Customs Registry

both entering and renewal

Trademark portfolio management

developing enforcement strategies, handling cases in administrative institutions and courts, naming and creating logos

Oppositions

against pending and registered trademarks

Post-registration

renewals, transfer of rights, licenses, voluntary renunciation of rights, changes

Patents

We at PATENTICA believe that a well-developed, comprehensive patent strategy, including timely registration of IP rights as well as monitoring of competitor’s patent activity, is essential to enhance the competitiveness of a company and avoid possible complications connected with enforcing IP rights on the market. PATENTICA deals with domestic and foreign patent prosecution, due diligence and freedom to operate investigations, assignment and licensing agreements, invalidity actions, litigation and post-registration maintenance.

Departments

Our patent department provides extensive range of services across diverse technology areas. Our Patent Attorneys and Experts are grouped by main focus into the following departments:

Chemistry & Chemical Engineering

Life Sciences & Biotechnology

Pharmaceuticals

Mechanical Engineering

Electrical Engineering

Material Sciences

Software and IT

In cases of complex modern technology often patent attorneys and experts specializing in different technical areas work together to meet the needs of our clients.

PATENTICA professionally assists in prosecuting patent applications before the Eurasian Patent Office (EAPO). As a result of smooth and streamline examination procedure handled by the patent attorneys of our firm a Eurasian application transforms into a single Eurasian patent equally enforceable in up to 8 EAPC countries including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Alternatively we could help in obtaining individual patents in the same countries or neighboring countries that are not parties of the Eurasian Patent Convention such as Georgia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Finally we draft and file a considerable number of PCT applications, which is a popular option for our domestic and international clients, who wish to obtain patent protection in different countries worldwide.

PATENTICA deals with drafting, filing and prosecuting patent applications, as well as preparing and registering assignments and licenses, handling appeals and oppositions, and dealing with the renewal of patents. The practitioners in our patents group also have significant experience in attending patent disputes at the administrative institutions, such as Chamber of Patent Disputes of the Russian Patent Office, and represent clients in court cases, including Intellectual Property Court.

Additionally, we offer a range of advice-based services, such as freedom-to-operate searches, patentability searches, IP due diligence, IP strategy consulting and others.

PATENTICA participates in technology transfers and offers our clients from academic and research institutions comprehensive help in finding possible investors in their business and qualified advice at every stage, from provisional patent filings to the signing of valuable transfer deeds.

Documents / Information we need

PCT application entering into National Phase:

PCT application number;
Names and addresses of applicant(s) and inventor(s) (unless the application is published);
Description, claims, abstract, and drawings (unless the application is published);
Power of Attorney executed by the applicant;
Amendments made after the international publication (if any);
Amendments to be made during the National Entry;

National applications:

Names and addresses of applicant(s) and inventor(s);
Description, claims, abstract, and drawings;
Power of Attorney executed by the applicant;
Certified copy of priority application(s) (when priority is claimed)

Contact us

If you have any questions or would like to obtain a quote, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@patentica.com

Translations

All translators we recruit have additional linguistic training complementing their qualifications in technical disciplines, such as chemistry, pharmaceuticals, biochemistry, mechanics, optics, computer engineering, software, medical equipment and others. Our main working languages are Russian, English, German, Japanese, Ukrainian and Georgian.

We have successfully implemented MemoQ CAT tool into our translation process. This top-notch program allows us to provide competitive prices for our clients along with higher speed and quality of translations based on using client- or subject-specific Translation Memories and trainable machine translation feature.

For ensuring the highest quality, we have developed an efficient algorithm for processing a translation order: each translation is reviewed by a senior patent specialist or a patent attorney in order to ensure proper terminology, style and format.

Trademark oppositions

While publishing trademark applications for oppositions by third parties is a common feature of IP legislation adopted by many countries, some jurisdiction do not allot specific time for opposing pending applications. However, even then any interested party conducting proper monitoring can usually file third-party observations against pending applications before their examination is completed. The observations may be based on similarity to prior trademarks, copyright, company name or industrial design, misleading nature of the filed mark, lack of its distinctive capacity and other grounds.

After registration, an opposition can be filed to contest already registered marks on the same grounds as pending applications. In addition, trademarks registered in the name of agents (distributors, local branches etc.) and unfairly registered trademarks can be attacked. The deadlines vary depending on the jurisdiction and the basis for opposition.

PATENTICA handles third party observations and oppositions in any form, provides a deep analysis and risk assessment before acting against trademarks potentially dangerous for client’s business, and offers alternatives, where applicable, such as forwarding limitation requests, CDLs and reaching co-existence agreements.