The right to the company name results generally from putting the company name to use in business dealings. Two dangers are to be heeded here.
When establishing a company there is the danger that the choice of company name will infringe upon existing rights of third parties. The search carried out when registering with the appropriate Chamber of Industry and Commerce is totally insufficient in order to avoid this danger (a fact that is unfortunately only rarely pointed out).
The second danger is based upon the fact that the right to the company name is geographically restricted to the area in which one is commercially active. This means that when expanding gegraphically to another country, there may be opposing mark rights which have emerged - accidentaly or deliberately - in the period between start of use in Germany and start of use in the foreign country.
If so desired, we advise our clients when creating a company name - the main aim here is to create a protectable company name - and in the carrying out of search in order to avoid conflicts with the trademark rights of third parties. In particular, with our clients we establish strategies for preventing the aforementioned problems for arising, for example by early and all-embracing trademark protection in the countries in which the company name is still not being used. Moreover, we can monitor the company name for threatened or actual infringement by third parties to whatever extent required. If there are conflicts with the trademark rights of third parties we represent our clients before the competent Courts and also in the event of infringement of own company name rights.