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One would have had to have lived on another planet for the past year and a half – which would probably have been a better option than life on Earth – to not realize that the world was being held in the grip of a pandemic. What started as a small news item about a new Chinese flu variant quickly began to dominate news broadcasts all around the world. In a very short period of time, the Covid-19 virus successfully conquered the world and, in an attempt to stop it from spreading any further and limit the number of victims, far-reaching measures were taken by governments.

As a trademark owner, you have to preserve your trademark from becoming a generic term for the goods or services which it covers.

Although a trademark becoming a generic term for the product or service it covers may seem to be the ultimate marketer’s dream, as nothing works as good as a trademark literally describing a product or service, it must be avoided if you want to maintain the exclusive rights to use in the market.

Even in the Intellectual Property (IP) field, third parties do not shy away from using documents and logos similar to those of Official IP authorities. In such documents, payment of fees is requested for maintenance or enforcement of IP rights. Do not be fooled when your IP details are mentioned in those documents, as such information is in fact publicly available.  If you take a closer look, you will note that the fees are well above the usual rates in the industry, a foreign bank account number is mentioned, as well as General Terms and Conditions that are entirely contrary to the interests of IP holders. Insofar as GEVERS is your representative, all fees and costs will be directly invoiced by GEVERS, meaning that you may typically disregard any other invoices or payment reminders received by third parties.