Brand Protection
Defense strategy for registered trademarks
Surveillance Service
After filing a trademark with the relevant trademark and patent offices, it is advisable to monitor whether identical or similar trademarks are subsequently filed in the relevant classes in order to take appropriate action to protect the distinctive sign for which you have exclusive rights.
The service informs the owner of registered trademarks when identical or similar trademarks are filed.
This allows the owner of the earlier trademark to contest the filing in time to protect their brand. Failure to monitor filings over time can, in fact, inhibit the ability to contest new filings.
For example, for Community trademarks, opposition must be filed before they are registered within 3 months of their publication.
Surveillance services often have a per-class cost. We offer users the ability to customize monitoring to their needs at very competitive prices.
For the trademarks registered by us during the 2026 , The surveillance service is discounted by 50% for the first year.
Surveillance services
- - surveillance of Italian brands
- - foreign surveillance on request:
- - global brand surveillance
(Includes United States Published federal brands excluded special surveillance for the United States)
- - European Union (EU) trademark surveillance
(Italian trademark + international trademark + Community trademark + national trademarks of the 27 European Union countries)
- - trademark surveillance Europe
- - Central America's surveillance, South America, United States (published federal brands) and Canada.
- - Special surveillance for United States trademarks 50 states (state trademarks)
- - special surveillance for unpublished federal trademarks in the United States
- - Special surveillance for United States common law trademarks (business name, common law, and domain name database)
- - Asia and Oceania brand surveillance
- - Brand surveillance in the Middle East and Africa
- - Trademark surveillance in the countries of the Madrid Agreement and Protocol
- - Nordic brand surveillance
- - Brand surveillance a country in Latin characters
- - Surveillance of Chinese trademarks in non-Latin characters (in Chinese characters)
- - Special surveillance in the country
- - World Title Holder Name Surveillance All Classes
- - Special surveillance of colors or combinations of max colors. 3 colors
Why is it appropriate to activate a surveillance service ?
Art. 22 CPI It is prohibited to adopt as a company name, denomination or business name, company sign or domain name a sign that is identical or similar to another's trademark if, due to the identity or affinity between the business activity of the owners of those signs and the products or services for which the trademark is adopted, there may be a risk of confusion on the part of the public, which may also consist of a risk of association between the two signs.
After filing a trademark with the relevant trademark and patent offices, it's a good idea to monitor whether identical or similar trademarks are subsequently filed in the relevant classes, so that appropriate action can be taken to protect the exclusive trademark. The service informs the owner of registered trademarks when identical or similar trademarks are filed.
This allows the owner of the earlier trademark to contest the filing in time to protect their brand. Failure to monitor the filing over time can, in fact, inhibit the ability to contest new filings.
For example, for Community trademarks, opposition must be filed before they are registered within 3 months of their publication.
The opposition procedure is an administrative procedure at the competent trademark offices.
It is not a precautionary procedure before a civil or criminal court. The costs are very low and resolution times are quick, "from a few months to an average of 1 year in most cases."
The procedure typically includes a period during which the parties can reach an agreement and settle the dispute. Examples include withdrawal of the infringing trademark, class limitation, or coexistence agreement.
Inertia in actively defending one's sign can lead to a weakening of the strength of the trademark in the presence of numerous identical and phonetically similar signs, up to the risk of the sign itself being revoked.
What does the surveillance service consist of ?
What is checked:
- - the filing of new similar trademarks in the countries of interest.
- - If the trademark is figurative, you can primarily inspect the phonetic or figurative part. Inspecting both requires two different and complementary methods of surveillance.
What is not checked:
- - identical company names in foreign countries "optional"
- - registration of identical or similar domain names “can be noticed in many cases after use via a free Google search.”
- - filing of the verbal sign as a newspaper in court "you can notice the use on the Internet through a free search on Google".
- - deposit as a sign of lists for party or political movement, denominations of origin.
optional surveillance on domains, company names...foreign...to be activated upon request.
- - Signs used locally as "de facto trademarks" that were never registered. "In many cases, this can be discovered after use via a free Google search."
N.B.: the surveillance service "covers, by way of example, 90% of critical situations" but supports the client's normal market monitoring activity "which covers the remaining 10% of critical issues".
The brands in question can be identified by consulting the catalogs of the main trade fairs in the sector, checking the main competitors at the fair, on their websites, and monitoring the competitors' products sold in the main distribution channels.
If the use of signs not registered as trademarks but used as de facto trademarks is not stopped quickly, it is difficult to demonstrate that there is an urgent need to stop their use because this creates confusion and the risk of association with customers. It is also difficult to take precautionary measures when, for example, a competitor has used a non-registered sign for years in the same stores and for identical products in different countries and for large sales volumes, and for years I never noticed it due to the lack of on-site visual control of the distribution channels.
- - I check that the word is written in the annual publications of dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc., reporting the specification that it is a registered trademark of….
Eg. Nutella
https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/eol-nutella-r
If you don't notify the publisher to add the clarification for the next edition, you risk a 99.99% chance of the sign being lost due to vulgarization. "The service is optional."
