EnglishInternational Intellectual Property Counsel
Conrad Fahrenkrug is a Senior Lawyer at iGERENT and an experienced international intellectual property counsel. For over a decade, he has advised companies on global IP strategy and execution, including trademark clearance and prosecution, enforcement, licensing, patents, industrial designs, copyright, regulatory matters, and domain dispute resolution.
A case study on why a trademark cleared in many markets can still be refused in South Korea.
At a glance: You can register a trademark at three levels: national (one country at a time), regional (multi-country blocs like the EU or Benelux) or international (the Madrid Protocol covers 125+ territories in one application). Choosing the right route depends on your markets, budget and growth plans.
At a glance: Intellectual property is vital because it:
At a glance: To protect your intellectual property internationally:
At a glance: Trademarks are territorial: registration in one country doesn’t automatically protect you elsewhere. To secure global rights, you can file individual national applications, use regional systems (e.g. EUIPO, OAPI) or the Madrid Protocol for a streamlined, multilocation filing. Monitoring services help you spot hijacked filings abroad and react quickly.
Startup guide: who owns copyright with no contract in freelance, collaborative, and employee-created work.
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When a trademark application is marked as “objected,” it means the trademark office or a third party has identified an issue that must be resolved before the mark can proceed toward registration. The application is not rejected, but it is temporarily paused while the applicant responds.
Objections usually relate to problems such as lack of distinctiveness, similarity to an existing trademark, or procedural issues in the application. The applicant must respond within the official deadline; otherwise, the application may be considered abandoned.
At a glance: Trademark infringement is the unauthorized use of a trademark (or a confusingly similar mark) in a way that is likely to mislead consumers about the source, affiliation, sponsorship, or approval of goods or services.
In practice, it doesn’t require an exact copy: infringement can involve a similar brand name, logo, or branding presentation, especially when the products, services, or sales channels overlap.
At a glance: To trademark a logo, you must file a trademark application that protects your logo as a brand identifier for specific goods or services. This involves choosing the right classes, checking for existing conflicts, submitting the correct logo file, and following the examination process of the trademark office in each country.
You don’t trademark a logo “globally” in one step. Protection is territorial, so the right strategy depends on where you sell now and where you plan to expand. Filing correctly from the start helps you avoid rejections, costly rebranding, and future legal disputes.
At a glance: To report copyright infringement, you need to:
You don’t need registration to report infringement, but having a registered work makes enforcement faster, stronger, and much easier to escalate.
At a glance: A trademark specimen is proof of how your mark is actually used in commerce: on products, packaging, point-of-sale displays, or service advertising. Remember: a drawing shows appearance, a specimen proves use. Getting this right helps you avoid costly USPTO refusals.
If you’re getting ready to file with the USPTO, you can also use our USPTO trademark application checklist to prepare everything you need for your application.
At a glance: The Hague Agreement allows you to register an industrial design in multiple countries through a single international application, streamlining costs, translations, and legal procedures. While it's efficient for global expansion, it only covers member countries and often requires national examinations. Strategic use, paired with prior design searches, helps maximize protection and minimize risk.
At a glance: Maintaining industrial design rights requires more than just renewals: it involves careful record keeping, ownership clarity, portfolio management, and proactive dispute prevention. Missing deadlines, failing to record assignments, or lacking documentation can lead to lost rights or enforcement issues. In global portfolios, complexity increases, making strategic planning and professional support essential.
At a glance: Industrial design registration costs include filing fees, professional drawings, attorney services, translations, and renewals, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars per country. Costs increase with international protection, and ongoing maintenance is required every 5 years. Discounts may apply for small entities, but portfolio management and enforcement can add significant long-term expenses.
At a glance: Conducting an industrial design search before filing helps ensure your design is new, distinctive, and free of potential conflicts. It reduces the risk of rejection, delays, and costly legal issues by identifying similar existing designs and clarifying your protection strategy. A smart, preventive step that saves time, money, and future headaches.
At a glance: The ideal time to file your design application is when your design is sufficiently developed to showcase its unique features but before any public disclosure occurs. Filing too early may lead to unnecessary costs if the design evolves further, while waiting too long could risk losing priority or exposing the design to copying. Aim to file when your design is finalized, your market readiness is clear, and you’re confident in its commercial potential. Timing your application properly ensures the strongest protection and maximizes your design's value.
At a glance: Choosing between national, regional, and international filing strategies is key to protecting your industrial design efficiently and effectively. Each option offers different advantages in terms of cost, scope, and administration. This guide helps you match your strategy to your business goals, market presence, and risk profile, so your design rights grow with your global expansion.
At a glance: Most countries require registration to enforce industrial design rights, but a few offer limited “unregistered design” protection. Registering your design not only blocks copycats, it also proves authorship and unlocks licensing opportunities.
At a glance: Industrial design protection gives you exclusive rights over the aesthetic appearance of your product: its shape, pattern, color or ornamentation. By registering your design, you prevent others from copying its look and gain legal tools to enforce your rights.
At a glance: Industrial property is a branch of intellectual property that covers inventions, trademarks, industrial designs, geographical indications and protection against unfair competition. It safeguards the outward appearance and branding of products and services in commerce.
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At a glance: Each type of intellectual property (patents, trademarks, industrial designs, and copyrights) is registered with its own national office. Properly registering your creations ensures exclusivity, proof of ownership, and competitive advantages in the market.
At a glance: Intellectual property law draws clear lines around what it will and won’t protect: it excludes abstract ideas, raw facts, methods and natural phenomena, as well as generic words, short phrases and features dictated solely by function. Understanding these boundaries helps you avoid wasted filings, steer clear of refusals and focus your resources on securing rights that truly deliver legal protection.
At a glance: Intellectual property rights come in several forms, each designed to protect different creations and innovations. The main types include patents, trademarks, copyrights and design rights, but the broader IP landscape also covers trade secrets, geographical indications and plant variety rights.
At a glance: Intellectual property rights infringement is the unauthorized use or exploitation of protected creations, such as copying, selling or distributing without permission, which undermines your control, revenue and reputation and can lead to legal action.
At a glance: IP ownership (or intellectual property ownership) defines who holds the legal rights to use, control, and profit from creations such as inventions, designs, brands and original works. Establishing clear ownership is critical for enforcement, licensing and commercial exploitation.
At a glance: Intellectual property rights (IP rights) are the exclusive legal entitlements granted to creators over their inventions, designs, and artistic works. They incentivize innovation by allowing you to control, monetize, and enforce your creations. Securing IP protection involves choosing the right type of right (patent, trademark, copyright, design, or trade secret), conducting searches, filing applications, and monitoring for infringement.
At a glance: Copyright clearance is the process of securing permission to use someone else’s copyrighted material (text, images, audio, video, etc.) legally and safely. It helps you avoid infringement, negotiate licensing terms, and document your right to incorporate third-party works into your own projects.
At a glance: To register your copyright, you generally need to submit a completed application form, pay the filing fee, and deposit copies of your work. Your creation must be original, fixed in a tangible medium and, where required, demonstrate minimal creativity.
At a glance: Copyright registration is handled by national (or regional) government offices, typically under a Ministry of Culture or Intellectual Property Office. You file online or by mail, pay a fee, and receive a certificate that serves as legal proof of your authorship.
At a glance: Copyright registration fees vary widely by jurisdiction and by the type of work you’re registering. Online filings are generally cheaper than paper, and many offices offer discounted “group” or “bundle” options for multiple works.
At a glance: Copyright protection attaches automatically the moment you create an original work and fix it in a tangible form (written, recorded, saved, etc.). No filing is required to own rights, but voluntary registration provides valuable legal benefits in many jurisdictions.
At a glance: Copyright protects original, creative works that have been “fixed” in a tangible or digital medium. You can’t copyright a mere idea, but once that idea is expressed through text, code, images, sound, etc... you own exclusive rights to its reproduction, distribution, performance, display and adaptations.
At a glance: Discovering your desired business name is already trademarked isn’t the end of the road. Your available options hinge on how closely your goods or services overlap and whether you can prove you were using the name first. From registering in a different class to negotiating coexistence agreements, challenging registrations, or even rebranding, this guide lays out the strategic routes you can take to protect or reclaim your brand.
At a glance: A “class” in a trademark search refers to a category of goods or services based on the internationally used Nice Classification that your mark will protect.
Picking the right class(es) ensures your trademark covers exactly what you sell or offer, avoids objections for vague or missing descriptions, and prevents overlap with unrelated businesses.
To make it easier, try our free Nice Classification Tool. It helps you quickly find the right class for your products or services without getting lost in endless lists.
At a glance: You can determine if a name or logo is trademarked by searching official government databases (e.g. USPTO, EUIPO), checking state-level and common-law records, reviewing international registries (WIPO), and using commercial lookup tools. If any search turns up a similar or identical mark in your goods/services class, you’ll need to rethink or seek professional guidance.
At a glance: Failing to renew your trademark or to use it in commerce can have serious consequences: your exclusive rights lapse, competitors may swoop in, and third parties can petition to cancel non-used registrations.
At a glance: Trademark renewals typically involve:
Budgeting for these up front helps avoid lapses and extra costs.
At a glance: Renewing your trademark is vital to maintain exclusive rights. In most jurisdictions, renewals occur every 10 years by paying official fees (and submitting a POA if required). Late renewals may be possible during a 2–6-month grace period with extra fees; after that, you risk losing your mark.
At a glance: A registered trademark typically enjoys a 10-year term (renewable indefinitely in most jurisdictions), but some countries set different initial terms. Keeping track of renewal deadlines and proof-of-use filings ensures your protection never lapses.
At a glance: Any party with a legitimate interest in a mark (individuals, companies, associations or heirs) can apply for a trademark. You can even assign or license filing rights to a local agent if you need regional representation.
At a glance: Trademarks aren’t just names or logos: they can be words, designs, shapes, sounds, colors, motions or even the position of a symbol on your product, each type protecting a distinct aspect of your brand identity.
At a glance: Yes, you don’t need a formal company to own a trademark. Individuals (natural persons) can file applications in most jurisdictions. The process and fees are identical; you simply list your personal name and address as the “owner” rather than a corporate entity.
At a glance: A denied trademark means the office found a formal or substantive defect, like descriptive wording, a conflict with an earlier mark, or an inadequate specimen. You can usually respond to the refusal, appeal, amend and refile, or pivot to a new mark altogether.
At a glance: Trademark registration is a multi-stage process: you file an application, pass examination, survive publication and opposition, and then maintain use and renewals or risk cancellation.
At a glance: To register a trademark, you need a distinctive mark, a clearance search, an accurate list of goods/services classes, a real-use specimen, a completed application form, and payment of fees.
At a glance: The cost to register a trademark varies widely by country, number of classes, and whether you use professional help. Government filing fees can range from a few hundred to over a thousand dollars (or euros/pounds), while attorney or agent fees add several hundred more.
At a glance: Trademarking a name turns your brand identifier into a legal asset. To trademark a name, you need to confirm it’s distinctive and available, define the right goods and services classes, file a formal application with your national IP office, respond to any examiner queries, and then maintain and enforce your registration.
To simplify step two, try our free Nice Classification Tool. It helps you quickly identify the right class for your products or services without scrolling through endless lists.
At a glance: Using a trademarked name without permission can trigger cease-and-desist letters, court injunctions, monetary damages (including profits and losses), customs seizures of infringing imports, and even for blatant counterfeiting, criminal penalties.
At a glance: A strong trademark is inherently distinctive (fanciful, arbitrary or suggestive) so it instantly identifies your brand and commands robust legal protection. Avoid generic or merely descriptive terms, steer clear of confusingly similar marks, personal names or geographic references, and always conduct a clearance search to dodge pitfalls in selection.
At a glance: Copyright is the bundle of exclusive legal rights granted to creators of original works (literary, artistic, musical, audiovisual, and certain scientific contributions), once those works are fixed in a tangible form. It protects the expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves.
At a glance: Here’s how trademarks empower your business:
At a glance: A trademark is a sign, such as a word, logo, shape or symbol, that identifies the source of goods or services and distinguishes them from those of other traders. It enables customers to recognize your brand and provides legal protection against unauthorized use.
Discover how to trademark your clothing brand or clothing line. Includes tips on classes, avoiding errors, and protecting your brand globally.
Learn how trademark monitoring helps protect your brand. Detect conflicts, enforce your rights, and avoid costly litigation with a trademark watch.
AI and copyright rules are evolving. Learn what is known so far, what remains uncertain, and how to reduce risks.
One of the most important parts of your brand from an online marketing point of view is having a good domain for your website. And yet, there are still many people who do not understand exactly what it is or what it means to have your own domain.
Trademarks serve to identify the product or service a company offers. Domain names are the web addresses that companies use for clients to access their web sites.
Usually, filing for a trademark renewal is actually a pretty simple process. You must meet the deadlines and pay the corresponding fees, and then you’re good to go.
Sound trademarks are part of the category called "non-conventional trademarks". Though they may be difficult to register, they are an essential branding tool and as such should not be neglected by brand owners. We tell you why.
We look into the history of trademarks: when did they appear, become legal assets, and what are the oldest trademarks in history?
Trademark scams and frauds are an increasing problem. At iGERENT we can assist you in recognizing when you may be a victim of one of these actions.
We analyze common problems faced by new entrepreneurs in relation to the protection of their designs and intellectual property in the fashion industry in Asia.
Trademark registration in GCC countries explained: what to file, Arabic requirements, searches, and the step-by-step process.
Practically every country in the word allows one to register trademarks in order to protect the name or design they use to promote their goods or services.
To protect your property, knowing the difference between laws is important. Click here to know the difference of trademark and copyright.
Learn how domain name and trademark infringement occurs, what cybersquatting really means, and when domain use crosses the legal line.
Trademarks don’t have to be registered to start a business, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe. Learn the real risks of relying on unregistered rights.
A trademark search allows you to know beforehand the probabilities a trademark has of being successfully registered.
Registering to protect one’s trademark is a must for any business. But, should I claim color and how should I submit the image of my trademark?
If you're thinking about registering your trademark you need to decide who the trademark owner should be.
There are many differences between patents and trademarks. Do you know them? Let us help you!
In order to enroll with the Amazon Brand Registry, you will need to register the trademark you are using on Amazon. We will tell you how.
What are the filing bases and how to choose a filing basis for your trademark application in the USA to get a registered trademark in the USA.
We're talking today about trademark priority and when you have to claim it for your registered trademark.
This article seeks to raise awareness about trademark spam sent by email and how to stop all the spammer emails.
Services for domain name disputes, recovery of domain name cybersquatters and defending a domain name from reverse cybersquatting or reverse domain hijacking.
Everyday you say some words that are generic trademarks, but we use it as names in daily language. Do you know some example?
Once your trademark is registered, you will need to manage your rights and make sure your trademark ownership is up to date. Here is how.
The following list includes countries (trademarks areas) and their territorial dependencies in which trademarks are automatically recognized when registered.
What are objections, oppositions, cancellation or invalidity actions for trademarks and what to do if you receive one.
Trademark validity means that having your trademark registered in one country does not prevent others from registering the exact same trademark in other countries.
Once a trademark application has been filed, what is the process like? What are you allowed to do?
This article provides recommendations and information about how to register a foreign trademark in China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Recommendations on what should be considered when choosing a trademark and how to choose it in order to avoid common pitfalls.
We explore what international rights a registered trademark grants and how to obtain them.
Trademarks are registered using the Nice classification system. We look into trademark classes and how to determine which one is appropriate for your trademark.
Behind every trademark, search, and strategy, there’s a dedicated team making things happen. Get to know the experts who contribute their knowledge and insight to iGERENT.
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