What Is Intellectual Property?

Trademark law

What is a trademark?

A trademark is above all your identity: what sets you apart from your competitors and allows your partners and consumers to identify you clearly.

Why protect your trademark?

A trademark has a dual function: enhancing your image and protecting it against third parties.

Protecting your trademark gives you, in particular, a relative monopoly over any sign (a word, an image, a sound, etc.) that the public can perceive as an indication of commercial origin.

This protection is essential to avoid any risk of confusion with a competitor or a third party.

What are the risks if you do not protect your trademark?

There are many risks where a trademark is not protected. The main ones are:

Loss of exclusive rights: by not registering a trademark, you do not benefit from an exclusive right to use it. Another company could therefore register the same or a similar trademark.
Risk of infringement: if another entity registers a trademark identical or similar to yours and you continue to use it without the rights, you could be accused of infringement. This may lead to legal proceedings and financial penalties.
Difficulty defending your trademark: if you have not registered it, it will be much harder, even impossible, to defend it in a dispute. Registration confers a title of ownership enforceable against third parties.
Loss of commercial value: an unprotected trademark may be used by other companies, which can dilute its value and weaken your brand image. It could also reduce consumers' perception of your brand, who might confuse it with competitors'.

Learn more about intellectual property law.

Copyright

What is copyright?

These works may be paintings, sculptures, books, music, but also plays, films, software, etc.

How do you protect your copyright?

Protection of your works of the mind is acquired automatically upon creation. No filing or formality is required.

However, to assert your rights over your work, you must provide proof, by any means:

of its originality,
of its date of creation,
and that you are indeed its author.

Proof can take various forms: dated emails with a business partner, deposit of a clothing collection with a bailiff, publication of a photograph in a dated magazine, deposit of your work with the INPI (e-Soleau envelope) or of your source code with the Agence pour la Protection des Programmes (APP), etc.

Designs

What is a design in intellectual property law?

Designs protect the appearance of a product (also called "industrial design").

They may be represented by a design, a shape, a clothing collection, etc. They can be protected at different levels:

nationally, by filing with the INPI;
at European level, by filing with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO);
internationally, through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

At French and European level, validly registered designs are protected for a minimum of 5 years (renewable several times up to a maximum of 25 years).

How do you protect a design, a shape or a clothing collection?

To protect a design in France, it must meet two main criteria:

Novelty: it must not have been disclosed before the registration application is filed.
Individual character: the overall visual impression it produces must differ from that of existing creations.

If these conditions are met, the design may be filed with the INPI, the EUIPO or the WIPO.

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