Intellectual Property

Recent matters DGKV’s Intellectual Property team has worked on include:

• Providing ongoing advice to Meta (Facebook Inc.) on all aspects of the protection and enforcement of its trademark rights in Bulgaria, including filing oppositions, negotiating with owners of conflicting signs or applications, initiating and pursuing infringement litigation, and conducting settlement negotiations, as well as, in recent years, matters related to hate speech, election-campaign coverage, and the obligation to assist Bulgarian authorities in cases where disclosure of user data is requested.
• Advising Instagram on possible oppositions to similar national trademarks on the basis of earlier Instagram trademarks enjoying reputation in Bulgaria, as well as successfully representing the company in settlement negotiations and in opposition proceedings before the Bulgarian Patent Office against competitors’ applications to register similar trademarks.
• Analyzing the Bulgarian implementation of the CRM Directive and advising Netflix International B.V. on the enforcement of direct licenses granted by music-right holders and the application of extended-collecting licensing by collective management organizations.
• Providing ongoing legal advice to Economedia AD, one of the largest and most prominent business media groups in Bulgaria, on multiple IP-related matters, including the enforcement of registered marks, pre-registration and registration matters, and representation regarding new brands, renewals of registrations, the classification of activities, and preliminary searches and monitoring.
• Providing strategic advice to Eljoy AD regarding the signs to be registered as European trademarks, as well as drafting and filing the EUIPO applications and assisting with EUTM-registration proceedings.
• Advising Škoda Auto a.s. on the strategy for overcoming two oppositions to the Bulgarian part of the client’s IR and representing it before the Bulgarian Patent Office in related proceedings.
• Advising Carlsberg Breweries and its Bulgarian subsidiary on trademark registration and opposition matters, risks related to the introduction of the group’s foreign labels on the Bulgarian market, trademark enforcement, trademark renewals, and monthly trademark monitoring.
• Advising Avia International in its opposition to a competitor’s application to register the same trademark in Bulgaria.
• Assisting British American Tobacco with IP due diligence (including the transfer of licenses) and providing strategic advice with regard to its acquisition of Bulgartabac Holding, the largest Bulgarian tobacco producer.
• Representing American credit rating agency Moody's in trademark opposition proceedings in Bulgaria.
• Advising one of the largest dermo-cosmetics groups in Europe and its Bulgarian subsidiary in opposition procedures it initiated in the Bulgarian Patent Office against conflicting national trademark applications.
• Advising Dabur India Limited on opposition procedures it initiated in the Bulgarian Patent Office against a conflicting national trademark application.