Trademarks is the generic term for your company's business characteristics. Trademarks may appear in very different forms. Traditional trademarks are word marks (such as the name of the trademark itself) and figurative marks (such as logos). Still, it is also possible to register several other types of business characteristics such as sounds, movements, shapes and multimedia (e.g. an animation of a logo).
Use and registration create an exclusive right to use the trademark. A trademark registration is valid for ten years from the date of application and has to be renewed every ten years.
We assist with all legal aspects of trademark registrations, including registration, ongoing monitoring as well as enforcement.
To learn more about trademarks, please contact Heidi Højmark Helveg.
Patents are a protection of technologies and products and will often be crucial for companies that base their business on specific technologies and products. A patent can secure the company's investments in e.g. development and research.
If you want to know more about patents, please contact Michael Brandt.
Copyright is the most basic protection you can obtain and is the basis for almost all protection of intellectual property rights. Images, videos, music, sounds and, not least, software can be protected by copyright. To obtain copyright protection, several conditions must be met. The product must be original, which means that it must be the result of the author's personal and independent creative efforts. The product must also be characterised as a "work".
It is neither necessary nor possible to register copyright in Denmark to enjoy protection.
CO:PLAY assists with copyright advice and enforcement and ensuring that your activities do not infringe the copyrights of others.
To learn more about copyright, please contact Heidi Højmark Helveg.
Internet domains have evolved into valuable and essential rights that need to be protected. The value of a domain can be enormous, which is why it's not uncommon for disputes over internet domains to arise. This can happen, for example, when a person buys a domain containing a company's trademark, and the person subsequently tries to sell the domain to the company at a high price, or when a person buys a domain name to harm a company.
CO:PLAY provides advice on domain disputes, including in the Complaints Board for Domain Names (regarding the .dk top-level domain) and international domains based on ICANN's rules.
If you want to know more about domain disputes, please contact Michael Brandt.
Your company's brand, products, look-and-feel, etc. are protected by marketing law, and your competitors are not allowed to imitate or free-ride on your efforts. Your protection arises by virtue of the effort you have made, and the principle of the rules is that everyone must make an effort and not free-ride on the efforts of others. Protection grows with your efforts, and the interest in imitation typically arises when a lot of effort and investment pays off. Here it is important to enforce your rights so that your efforts and investment are not eroded by others' imitations. We advise on all aspects of marketing law and have extensive experience in enforcing companies' marketing law protection.
If you want to know more about good marketing practice, please contact Heidi Højmark Helveg.
Your own person is protected including your name, your image, your voice, your information, your privacy, your personal integrity and your personality.
If you find that an image of you is being used by others, e.g. in their marketing, or if you are mentioned, for example, in media in an offensive or infringing way, we can help protect your interests. Companies as well as individuals are protected against defamation, where the important distinction between value judgments and facts is central. Protection ends when freedom of expression demands it.
We handle cases concerning freedom of expression in all its forms, including on social media and misinformation, media freedom of expression, employees' freedom of expression, libel charges, etc. If you or your company is in the media spotlight or otherwise subject to defamation/libel, we can handle all parts of the process and have significant experience in strategic advice and reputation management that is an important part of the process as you go through a media storm. We also conduct injunction cases, court cases and press board cases when necessary.
To learn more about personal protection please contact Heidi Højmark Helveg.
Is your company taking good enough care of its trade secrets?
Since 2018, it has been a requirement that a company that wants protection of its trade secrets takes appropriate actions to protect them. One of the ways to protect trade secrets can, for example, be to ensure that employees who have knowledge of the trade secrets are sworn to secrecy and that business partners and others to whom the company gives access to the trade secrets only have access when they have entered into a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
Trade secrets can be any kind of information about the company's products, services, methods or anything else that has independent economic value and is not known to the outside world, i.e. is secret.
If you need to know more about protecting your trade secrets or if someone has misused your trade secrets, please contact Michael Brandt.
