Trademarks

Emphasize Product Quality - Protect Market Share

Good marketing requires easily recognized brands for sales promotion, which brands then come to symbolize the
quality of the respective goods or services. Trademark pirates attempt to "sponge off" the image of well-established
products by offering less expensive (and lower quality) competing merchandise. It is therefore important to have every
trademark protected by registration with the German, European or international trademark office. It is irrelevant whether
the tradesman or the Corporation has already publicly used the mark in marketing or is still in the stage of preparing to
do so. The trademark will be registered for the party who files the first application for it with the relevant Office.
In general, domain-names can be registered as trademarks as well.

Not only can words and graphic designs be protected as trademarks, but also combinations of figures, letters and
colors, three-dimensional packagings and shapes. Even audible signs, such as brief identifier melodies of broadcasting
stations, can be protected.

However, we recommend that applications for trademarks be filed at the earliest stage - if possible long before the
introduction of a product or service into the market. This allows the user to find out whether the trademark is eligible
for protection and whether the owners of older, potentially confusing marks will defend their rights against the new
application. The applicant should seek the advice of an expert in trademarks prior to making the application. The patent
attorney will conduct a trademark search in order to establish whether similar marks are already on record and whether
difficulties might be encountered in terms of admission to the register. The patent attorney can also provide advice as to
how major difficulties (and therefore substantial costs) may be avoided by a minor modification of the proposed mark,
so that a rapid entry into the register may be achieved before the introduction of the new product into the market.

Even though trademarks must not be directly descriptive of the related product, good marks, such as so-called
"speaking marks" promise good chances of success in the market, provided that the following aspects are duly considered:

1. Eye-catching to secure attention
2. Expressiveness to symbolize quality
3. Uniqueness to distinguish from the "dense population of other marks"
4. Reproducibility to reproduce easily in different media
5. Universality to represent the product/service worldwide
6. Flexibility possibility to add a term to form a "trademark line"

The designer of a trademark should consider how certain good marks such as "CocaCola", "Adidas", "SHELL", "MERCEDES" -
with extensive usage for generations - have become famous marks whereas other identifier names such as "SPUTNIK"
are strongly dependent on the spirit and tastes of their time, can exist for a few years only, and must then be replaced by
new names.

Trademarks must be used and carefully protected. Marks which are not used for more than five years may be deleted from
the register upon request by a third party. The defense of "good" marks is important as well because the owner of a mark
who tolerates the use of his trademark by a third party may run the risk of forfeiture. If used and protected, trademark
rights - unlike patents - may be extended (every 10 years) as many times as desired.

More than 74'000 new trademark applications were filed with the German Patent and Trademark Office in 2008. In addition,
the European Community Trademark Office received about 87'000 trademark applications for the entire European Union,
including Germany, in 2008. The electrical industry is the leading applicant for product marks, outnumbering even the
pharmaceutical and clothing industries. Among the foreign owners of German trademarks, US applicants are in the majority,
followed by the British and the Japanese. In 2008 nearly 40'000 new International Trademark Registrations have been filed
at WIPO. Germany is the most important member state with over 15% far ahead of France, Benelux, Switzerland and the
United Kingdom.

Trademarks already existed in the ancient world. The Assyrians, for instance, branded their bricks with symbols in order
to identify the manufacturer. The artisans of Greece and Rome used marks to identify their works, and the medieval guilds
continued the earlier practice. Mankind learned very early how to distinguish quality products from competing products
by trademarks. Today, with the complexity of modern commerce, trademarks secure important market rights. Investments
in marketing activities must be made on a foundation of good, registered trademarks, in order to protect invested capital
and ensure good earnings.

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