Intellectual property rights can come to existence in various ways within companies. It may occur in the context of creating a name (for companies and brands), product development (trademarks / designs), technical inventions (patents), design (copyright and designs) but also in online activities (domain names and social media). A claim to these rights often occurs only after protection for these specific rights is sought. Because product development, marketing and the legal department are often not integrated, the risk that certain rights are not claimed is always present.
In addition, companies may decide to license a trademark or product. But apart from trademarks licenses are also used for the operation of other IP rights such as designs and copyrights. A license gives a company permission to use a product / trademark / patent or other rights elsewhere. Licenses are basically free in form, but it is wise to put the agreements clearly on paper. As with distribution agreements it must be clear what another can or cannot do, under what conditions and how the partnership may be terminated. We also see more and more mergers between companies (or divisions of companies) which forget to transfer the IP rights to the new entity in time.
Because of this a good overview of what exactly is protected and how this is done is often lacking. In the context of possible conflicts, and because intellectual property rights are an important part of the goodwill, it is wise to gain an insight. What rights are registered and which are not registered and what we can do to claim a timely protection.
The Abcor Goodwill check shows which rights are claimed and which are not. Also our lawyers will issue an advice to ensure certain rights are claimed in time.