FAQ
FrequentlyAskedQuestions
GENERAL QUESTIONS
Unlike Industrial Property Attorneys, PAPERZ IP is not authorized to provide legal advice. PAPERZ IP employs archivists specialized in documentary research on manufactured products. It does not carry out clearance searches on trademarks (company / product names) or patents (technical aspect of a product) as Industrial Property Attorneys do.
We work for law firms, industrial property attorneys, and also directly for companies, in a wide range of industries: fashion, jewelry, decoration, toys (…), and in all types of business sectors, from luxury brands to mass retail firms, in France and abroad.
Our aim is to satisfy our clients, so we make every effort to provide them with as many elements as possible within the deadlines imposed by the legal proceedings or by their internal processes.
For a preventive search request, which is similar to a current market situation, we pledge to submit our report within a few working days. If we are tasked with a prior art search on a design in the context of a dispute, which requires us to consult old publications and travel to museums, we can submit our report within 5 to 15 working days, sometimes sooner.
Given the continuous increase in the number of designs and trademarks created each year, our searches, which mainly focus on publications, cannot be described as exhaustive. However, we make every effort to provide our customers with as many factual elements as possible to enable them to make the right decision. For clearance searches, our aim is to minimize the company’s exposure to the risk of legal proceedings for infringement or unfair competition.
We charge per working day. Upon receipt of your request, we offer you a search strategy and a number of working days that varies according to the type of product, the period to target, the number of results to provide…
Do not hesitate to ask us for a quote, we will send you a price plus a rundown of our search strategy.
PAPERZ IP pledges to keep the designs, trademarks, and information entrusted to it as part of its activity confidential; the elements given by the customer are the subject of a restricted and controlled distribution within the company.
If PAPERZ IP must reveal a picture to its archivists or externally in order to gain further information, it strives not to disclose any other information such as the names of the parties or the objective of the research, in order to respect the confidential nature of the dossier entrusted to it.
DESIGN AND TRADEMARK SEARCHES
We are archivists specializing in designs (physical appearance) and trademarks searches. We are neither engineers nor Industrial Property Attorneys, so we do not undertake trademarks (trade names) or patents (technical aspect) searches. However, we are regularly consulted when it comes, for example, to check the originality of a logo, or to demonstrate that the use of a term was common at a given date, or for any other research that would require consulting archives.
Not all designs (physical appearance) are registered, which makes sense given the very high number of products created every year. Designs that have not been registered are covered by copyright which remains in force until 70 years after the designer’s death. This is why, when we carry out clearance searches, we do not limit ourselves to viewing designs registered with INPI (France), EUIPO (Europe) or WIPO (international). We also identify similar designs that have featured in a magazine, a catalogue or on the Internet.
When we process information, we focus on the items that our customer most frequently request, namely bags, shoes, jewelry, watches, cosmetics, toys, high-tech gadgets, patterns, furniture, lighting, decorative accessories, tableware, small appliances. However, we are able to carry out searches on not so common items, such as fences, buildings, artworks, as we hold a large number of publications which may prove useful. Furthermore, we undertake tailor-made searches in external documentation centres, such as the Museum of Architecture and Heritage or the European Centre for Photography.
Our books on jewelry, perfume bottles, furniture, logos… (and many others) come from French and foreign publishers, they present designs and patterns from different countries. Our archivists gather and file many French magazines and sales catalogs, we also have foreign editions such as ELLE and ELLE DECORATION ESPAÑA. For a research on a design, our archives can be just as useful to an industrial property professional practicing in France as to one practicing abroad. As the globalization of the offer and the harmonization of products from one country to another has increased considerably, we are able to send quality search reports to a wide variety of clients; we are solicited by French companies and firms as well as Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Belgian … For a search on a design or a trademark for which the notion of territoriality is to be taken into consideration, we adapt our offer to effectively meet the needs of our clients. We have access to several external French and foreign sources (magazines, books, etc.), and our archivists can travel to carry out specific research in local documentation centers (museums, libraries, etc.). Do not hesitate to send us your request, we will send you a tailor-made research strategy!
The company was founded in 2009, which was when we first subscribed to magazines and collected our first catalogues. However, we regularly purchase older books, such as ELLE magazines from the 30s to the 50s, Sears and catalogues from the 50s to the 80s… We buy them in flea markets or from individuals, allowing us to go back in time.
We also have access to other old works through external French and foreign databases.