Patent Enforcement
A Surrey based company which conceives, designs, develops and markets a range of innovative art-based products, Renart's product lines include Blendypen, Color Splitz, Blasta. Sprayza and Dotza, all of which are available through retailers including Walmart, Walgreens, Argos, Toys R Us, Target.com and Amazon.
For many years, RenArt have appreciated the need to protect their new products with patent rights, as well as covering the branding of their individual product lines with trade mark registrations. The Company has secured IP rights in Europe, the USA, Canada, and the Far East.
RenArt Limited recently took action against a major company in North America who, despite having seen our client’s patents and published patent applications, elected to market a similar product in North America and elsewhere. When first approached, the company expressed the view that its product did not fall within the scope of our RenArt’s patents. The American product was dissimilar in some respects to the RenArt product but included key unique features also to be found in the claims of the patents. A negotiation followed which resulted in the North American company agreeing to discontinue its marketing of the offending product and to pay to our client a sum equivalent to a multiple of its legal fees in bringing the action.
This is a simple example demonstrating where a patentee has used its Intellectual Property rights to remove competing products from the market place at zero legal costs.
To achieve this, we stressed that it was important that the relevant patents were both valid and embraced not only the product to be marketed but also competing products which might embody the inventive concept of the product.
RenArt's success in using the IP rights to the full is in large part down to good housekeeping. Together, we ensure that patent applications are filed as early as possible and developments are regularly discussed to ensure that the patent applications reflect changes made to the product as it passes from an embryonic idea to a fully fledged item; that changes which might be made by a competitor in an attempt to avoid the ultimate patents are embraced by the claims to be allowed in the patents; that appropriate territorial cover is secured; and that, if appropriate, Registered Trade Marks and Registered Designs are acquired.