INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY

Manev & Partners  has extensive and long-standing experience in the field of intellectual property, offering a comprehensive analysis and comprehensive strategy for effective protection of intellectual property.

In addition to the phase of registration of industrial property sites, our team provides follow-up protection in case of violation of the rights to these sites both in court and out of court.

  • Procedure for granting a patent (analysis of the technical solution, examination of the prior art, preparation of the description and patent claims, filing the patent application and conducting the procedure before the Patent Office until the protection document is issued)

  • Procedure for registration of a utility model (analysis of the technical solution, study of the prior art, preparation of the description and patent claims, filing the application for registration and conducting the procedure before the Patent Office until the issuance of the protection document)

  • Trademark registration procedure (analysis and offering of an adequate range of goods and services for which to apply for the trademark, preparation and filing of the application for registration, examination of earlier identical or similar trademarks, conducting the registration procedure, including procedure (s) for revocation of earlier marks in order to successfully register the mark applied for)

  • Procedure for registration of an industrial design (preparation and submission of the application for registrationof an industrial design, study of earlier designs in order to assess the novelty and originality of the requested design, conducting the design registration procedure before the Patent Office until the protection document is issued )

  • Procedure for granting a European patent (filing the application for a European patent and conducting the procedure before the European Patent Office until the protection document is issued, engaging local patent attorneys in the countries where protection is sought, in order to file a translation of the description and patent claims before the local patent office)

  • Procedure for the registration of a Community trade mark (CTM), analysis and offering of an adequate range of goods and services for which to apply for a trade mark, preparation and submission of an application for registration, examination of earlier identical or similar STM marks, of the registration procedure, including opposition procedure (s) and revocation of earlier marks, in order to successfully register the mark applied for)

  • Community design procedure (CRD) procedure (preparation and submission of the application for registration of an industrial design, conducting the design registration procedure until the protection document is issued)

  • Procedure for the registration of a Community trade mark (CTM), analysis and offering of an adequate range of goods and services for which to apply for a trade mark, preparation and submission of an application for registration, examination of earlier identical or similar STM marks, of the registration procedure, including opposition procedure (s) and revocation of earlier marks, in order to successfully register the mark applied for)

  • Patent application procedure – PCT patent (filing an application for a PCT patent and conducting the procedure before the International Bureau, engaging local patent attorneys in the countries where protection is sought, in order to file a translation of the description and patent claims with the the local patent office)

  • Trademark application procedure – Madrid registration system (analysis and offering of an adequate range of goods and services for which to apply for a trademark, preparation and filing of an application for international registration, engagement of a local trademark representative, who in case of refusal to register to take on further protection)

  • Procedure for applying for an industrial design – The Hague registration system (preparation and submission of the application for international registration, engagement of a local design representative who, in case of refusal of registration, will take on further protection)

  • Judicial bodies (conducting court proceedings for protection of rights to copyrights, patents, trademarks and industrial designs, establishing the fact of bad faith in applying for a trademark, appealing the decisions of the Patent Office of the Republic of Bulgaria for refusals to grant a patent, trademark registration and industrial design, legal representation before the Supreme Administrative Court against / in support of decisions of the Commission for Protection of Competition)

  • Customs Agency (submission of a request for application of border measures for protection of intellectual property objects, supply of samples or photographic images of samples of detained goods (in case of detention of counterfeit goods), undertaking other actions related to the procedure on the application of border measures)

  • Commission for Protection of Competition (undertaking actions for initiating proceedings for sanctioning unfair competition under the Law on Protection of Competition and legal representation before the Commission within the proceedings)

  • Patent Office of the Republic of Bulgaria (undertaking actions to initiate proceedings to sanction infringements of trademark and industrial design rights)
  • Initiation of procedures for realization of criminal liability of the infringers of intellectual property rights

  • Disposal of intellectual property rights (patent transfer agreements, trademarks, designs, license agreements, copyright assignment agreements, know-how, trade secret information, franchise agreements, declarations of consent, etc.)
  • Mergers, acquisitions, divisions and separations of companies, sale of a commercial enterprise (in the part concerning the objects of intellectual property)
  • Trade distribution

In recent years, there has been high activity in the field of intellectual property protection in Bulgaria – the number of registered trademarks, industrial designs, inventions and utility models is increasing. The registration of thousands of industrial property sites also leads to numerous conflicts of interest between different competitors.

To provide more effective protection for our customers, we have developed a special package of monitoring services called IP WATCH, with the following versions:

Amendments to the Trademarks and Geographical Indications Act Following the amendments to the LMGI, which have been in force since August 2005, the TRADEMARK WATCH service has become very useful and necessary for trademark owners. According to these changes, the Bulgarian Patent Office publishes all trademark applications and each person has the opportunity to file an objection against this application before it is registered.

Bulgaria and the European Union

After Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union, many changes took place in the state of the system for protection of industrial property. The registration of a European trademark also operates on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria, as this registration system differs from the existing in Bulgaria system for registration of a national trademark. When registering a European trade mark, no official examination shall be carried out for the existence of previously registered similar trade marks for the territories of the Member States.

This task is left entirely in the hands of trademark owners who have the right to oppose the registration of the European mark applied for if they consider that this mark would infringe their earlier rights (their previously applied for or registered mark, or other earlier rights under the European Trademark Registration Regulation). In connection with this new opportunity to register a trademark for the territory of Bulgaria, it is very important to obtain timely information about the emergence of new similar trademark applications.