Search for evidence of use
Case study on a trademark
STARTING SITUATION
An international beverage and spirits group has approached us regarding one of its iconic brands, which is distributed in many countries.
They wish to prove the use of their trademark between 2020 and 2025, in 7 EU countries, in various forms: three-dimensional mark and word mark. In this type of situation, Paperz IP must first fully understand the context in which the client company operates. This means that we obviously need to obtain details of the protected trademarks, but also, and especially when it comes to trademarks, we need to know which geographical area to focus our research on as a priority.
OUR EXPERTISE
When we are called upon to conduct research aimed at proving the use of a trademark, the most important factor is the quality of the documentation we find.
We need evidence with a definite date that proves genuine use, which can be demonstrated by any means, including documents related to the commercialisation of a product or service under that trademark (invoices) as well as elements related to communication and marketing around that trademark.
In quantitative terms, it is important to gather a minimum amount of evidence in order to demonstrate the genuine nature of the use.
In such cases, we agree with our clients on a minimum amount of evidence to be included in the file, to the extent that we can find it. Indeed, given the very nature of our activity, we have an obligation of means and not of results.
OUR INTERVENTION
Several areas under investigation
For this research, we focused on several areas.
Firstly, documentation from the company itself: advertisements, publications on social media or in the press more generally. Surprisingly, not all companies centralise their own documentation. This works out well because at Paperz IP, our team of experienced researchers knows exactly where to look to find these documents as quickly as possible. Their keen eye allows them to quickly identify relevant publications and classify them.
Social media: numerous posts reaching a wide audience
Another avenue of research for this search is third-party publications on social media.
Today, this is a very rich source for trademark-related topics, as the audience for a publication is visible to everyone in many cases. However, it is important to sort through profiles that could be fictitious and those of people who are truly ‘influential’.
The press: an indispensable source
Finally, our documentalists have obviously combed through our internal documentary collection and international press databases.
Thanks to our technological tools for text and visual recognition and the digitisation of almost all of our archives, our teams can quickly review the tens of thousands of works we own.
In this case, for a search for a well-known brand, given that it is a brand widely distributed to a fairly broad audience, searches were carried out in a large number of press titles, both French and from the six other European countries covered by the search: women’s magazines (Marie-Claire, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Vogue), general daily press (Le Monde, Il Foglio, El Periódico, De Standaard, Gazet Van Antwerpen, Les Echos, Le Figaro,…), lifestyle press (Harper’s Bazaar, Ideat, GQ, etc.), as well as in our thematic books, such as books on drinks or glasses.
