Intellectual Property

NAL LAW firm focuses on setting effective integrated strategies for all legal issues related to the life span of intellectual property in every industry from inception of the idea till its development into a protectable right, that can be sold, licensed, defended and enforced. NAL LAW Intellectual Property specialized lawyers are genuinely concerned about the intellectual prowess of organizations, businesses and governments. They are of the select few lawyers in Egypt fully dedicated to IP.

IP Registration & IP Strategy

Around 80 percent of the market value of any business nowadays (from start-up to maturity stages) is made of intellectual assets: ideas, concepts, brands, inventions, software, business methods, musical works, plant varietis etc. To secure your business assets and make sure you can protect them against infringers, unfair competition, copying, and imitation it is essential that these intellectual assets are protected by law as intellectual property rights. All types of intellectual property (except copyrights) must be registered in your name to be protected including brands, trademarks and logos, industrial designs (new products and package designs e.g. of jewelry or carpets), plant varieties (covering plant innovations) and inventions (protected by grant of patents). Copyrights protects creative works from date of publication in the name of the author, but registration is very important as it proves ownership and defines the scope of the copyrighted work. Copyright registration is relevant for musical works, movies, books, software, databases, documents, websites, mobile applications, etc. Intellectual Property registration plan and strategy should be aligned with the business plan, particularly with market expansion goals into other countries. In general, Intellectual Property registration grants protection only in the countries where the right is registered (except for famous trademarks and copyright for published works), and therefore it is prudent business strategy to register your intellectual property in countries you wish to expand in the future. There are international registration systems for each type of intellectual property that are managed by the World Intellectual Property Organization, making it easier to access registration systems of around 90 countries. NAL LAW lawyers are experienced in advising businesses on what to register and where depending on your business goals and plans.

IP Portfolio Management & IP Audit

As your business grows and matures, your intellectual property assets portfolio grows in tens, hundreds – any maybe thousands of assets. The average intellectual property portfolio of top 500 companies make around 90 percent of their market value. There are many IP Portfolio management strategies that you need to be aware of, to best leverage your intellectual property assets including weeding out outdated assets, strengthening your strategic IP assets with other forms and layers of protection, licensing out your IP rights in other fields or other countries to generate revenue, and others. IP Portfolio management is about knowing what rights you have, as many IP rich companies are not fully aware of the IP assets they have or how to fully exploit/leverage them (hence, the Rembrandts in the Attic dilemma). IP Portfolio management involves two main steps: knowing what intellectual property assets or rights that your business owns or has developed (Intellectual Property Audit) to end up with creating your library, database, or asset register and then adopt the right strategy for your business to manage the IP Portfolio. The IP Audit and IP Portfolio Management strategies should be aligned with your business plan. NAL LAW lawyers have helped businesses of all sizes in auditing their IP assets and rights, and manage them to grow and prosper. We can guide you on how.

IP Enforcement

The more successful you are, the more that your intellectual property will be stolen! This is true for all businesses, industries, and types of intellectual property. In fact, global trade in fake products (counterfeit products with fake trademarks), in pirated software or movies or songs, in unauthorized propagation of new plants, etc is about to hit the two trillion mark. Illicit global trade in stolen intellectual property rights has been linked with financing terrorism and drug trade. Even on a micro level, intellectual property infringement can rob your business of your most famous trademark or brand, your breakthrough pharmaceutical product, your blockbuster movie or song, your most profitable new fruit variety, and the list goes on. With a strong winning enforcement team, NAL LAW not only enforces your intellectual property rights but devises for you the enforcement strategy (short and long term) to drive out infringers, imitators and illicit traders out of the market. Most importantly, NAL LAW will advise you on the best enforcement measure (criminal, civil or administrative) under the law and according to your legal position.

IP Litigation

Many complications may arise in your acquisition or management of your intellectual property rights. A competitor company may claim that it owned your trademark before you registered it, or that your granted patent covers a different pharmaceutical product than the one the competitor owns, or that you have no right to claim copyright protection over a song for prior transfer of rights, and the list goes on. That is where you will need a proficient and experience Intellectual Property lawyer to ascertain the scope of your rights, and devise the best litigation strategy to defend your rights. NAL LAW lawyers have achieved breakthrough success in IP litigation starting with cancellation actions, unfair competition, patent and trademark infringement, and copyright misappropriation. To learn about our success stories you can visit our IP Hall of Honor

IP Watch

It is not enough to register an intellectual property, for strategic IP rights you should always monitor if the competition is to register similar rights to take preemptive action that can save your business loss of rights, time to market and expenses. NAL LAW provides the following watch services:

Trademark Watch – monitoring the Trademark Office Gazette to alert against any application to register a trademark that would adversely affect your business if finally registered. If on time, you can block the registration of the other competing trademark by filing in opposition (a procedure that is much less costly compared to going to court).
Pharmaceutical Patents Watch – monitoring the Egyptian Drug Authority databases for approvals of patented pharmaceutical products to generic companies, and monitor the market for any market launch. If on time, you can block the generic (unauthorized) drug from entering the market.
Freedom To Operate – If not sure that you can use a certain trademark, patented invention, musical work, video clip, etc you can request a FTO report which includes search of the public records of the registration offices to assure you of the intellectual property you can register, use freely, or modify so to avoid legal liability for infringing the intellectual property rights of others.