Brand abuse does not necessarily mean counterfeiting. Trademark infringement can be equally damaging. Goodwill and reputation associated with the products and services of your company can tempt others into cashing in.

We act both for patent attorneys and directly for clients. Whether it is a product, process or system patent, we can assist in securing the evidence needed to litigate and claim monetary damages, or to secure royalties from technology licensing agreements, or even to settle by mutual agreement i.e. technology sharing.

When considering taking legal action against an infringing party, there may be sufficient information from public sources to produce a patent claim and proceed with litigation. However, more often than not there is not enough information in the public domain to be certain that a product or process infringes a patent. An important decision then has to be made. Do you assume that a competitor is infringing your patent and proceed to litigate, hoping that during the discovery process you secure the information you need to prove your case? This approach can lead to problems: The courts may well dismiss the claim due to a lack of supporting evidence, or worse still, if during the discovery no evidence of infringement is found, the defendant is able to claim costs and damages.

Ddetective obtains the necessary evidence of infringement: - promotional material, technical drawings, documents, photographs, and video recordings as well as product samples. In order to assess potential damage claims, details of present and historical sales figures are obtained. We also gather intelligence regarding the structure of the organisation behind the infringement, their suppliers and the distribution network. In addition to individual investigations, we are also often asked to carry out market surveys to establish the extent and reach of infringing products.