Retail & Consumer goods

Intellectual property is a powerful tool in the fast-moving retail and consumer goods sector. Protecting the value of products, know-how and brands is key to long-term success. Our specialists are aware of the latest legal developments and have in-depth sector knowledge.

We are committed to helping our clients maintain a competitive edge, including through (cross-border) litigation, prosecution, strategic advice and customs actions, in relation to advertising and marketing, competition issues, brand, design and patent protection, IP portfolio management and prosecution, labelling and food law, licensing, merchandising, franchising and distribution, reputation management and social media.

Our clients include many leading multinationals; we take pride in resolving their IP challenges at every stage of a product’s lifecycle and throughout the supply chain, from manufacture and distribution to retail.

REPRESENTATIVE WORK
- - Acting as European lead counsel in a complex global dispute relating to famous vodka trademarks, including victories before the Dutch Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
  - Representing a leading electronics multinational in EU-wide litigation to protect its inventions, brands and industrial designs.
  - Assisting a longstanding client in the chemicals industry with stopping a network of infringers using infringing paint mixing software.
  - Advising and representing a large confectionary company in preliminary injunction proceedings against a well-known energy beverage producer in a trade mark dispute based on an advertising claim in the context of a large-scale product launch.
  - Providing extensive trade mark and unfair competition law advice to a confectionary company pertaining to the launch and distribution of its newest product and overseeing legal coordination of the launch.
  - Securing injunctions and protecting designs for a potato company in cross-border Community design litigation against a global competitor before the EU Intellectual Property Office and various national courts.
MORE EXAMPLES
- Acting for a renowned fashion brand as international lead counsel and obtaining EU-wide trade mark injunctions against multiple foreign defendants (two large international clothing chains).
- Protecting the eye-catching design of a popular cosmetic product against copycats and major competitors, from market launch to enforcement, thereby contributing significantly to the success of the product and preserving its uniqueness on the market.
- Securing, on the basis of customs detentions, a cross-border trade mark injunction, a product recall, the award of damages and a public retraction to protect a watchmaker’s brand against a network of counterfeiters.
- Advising on a permanent basis a multinational cosmetics company on the protection of its brands and technical innovations.
- Obtaining EU-wide declarations of non-infringement in a design case involving children’s strollers.
- Managing the IP portfolios of inter alia the world’s leading beverage company, an international tobacco company, a leading canned food company, a leading prescription eyewear company and a leading frozen food company.
- Conducting patent litigation in relation to electric razor blades.
- Conducting patent litigation in relation to electric toothbrushes.
- Conducting patent litigation in relation to dishwasher tablets.
- Conducting patent litigation relating to positioning device for digital camera batteries.
- Conducting patent litigation regarding a multifunctional floor cleaning device for consumer use.
- Conducting patent litigation in relation to pads used in marble floor cleaning devices for industrial use.