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Intellectual Property

Since the creation of Nomos in 1998, intellectual property has been one of the firm’s main areas of expertise. Nomos has built its expertise and reputation through its long-term support both advice and litigation – for companies involved in sectors where the protection of intellectual property is a top priority and a major asset (cultural industries, fast moving goods, luxury goods and cosmetics).

By advising organisations representative of a number of industries, we contributed to the development of the legislative framework with the constant objective of maintaining a high degree of protection of intellectual property rights.

Nomos is regularly recognised in the rankings as being among the best French firms in the field of intellectual property.

Protecting the rights of our clients

Copyright, neighbouring rights for performers, brands, patents, and databases are all areas of intellectual property requiring specific expertise to determine and implement protection tailored to the clients’ needs.

We are committed to understanding the clients’ business and goals, in order to provide protection for their intellectual assets. We favour pragmatic analyses leading to concrete recommendations.

We intervene at all stages of arranging protection:

  • Advice on the various contractual arrangements for acquisition of rights: creation by employees, rights assignments specific to certain sectors (music publishing, literary publishing, audiovisual production, recording contracts)
  • Brand advice on the choice of distinctive signs, risk analysis and portfolio management: taking on the entire filing procedure (French National Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI), EUIPO, WIPO), opposition proceedings, acquisition or assignment of trademarks, negotiation and drafting of coexistence agreements. We have developed a international network of partners to ensure the implementation of protection abroad.

Negotiating the exploitation of rights

The wide range of business sectors of the clients we assist in intellectual property allows us to have a view which is both precise and comprehensive of the different practices and contractual schemes for exploitation of rights.

Agreements relating to the exploitation of intellectual property rights may require to also adress issues in other areas such as competition law or tax law. When necessary, the intellectual property team’s lawyers rely on the expertise of the firm’s other specialised teams to ensure that our clients receive comprehensive advice, sound in all its aspects.

Our practice and close monitoring of intellectual property case law allows us to anticipate and control contractual risks.

We thus have recognised skills in:

  • The negotiation and drafting of all types of contracts for exploitation of rights, in literary and artistic property as well as in industrial property (assignment, licences, sponsorship contracts, product placement etc.).
  • Conducting intellectual property audits in the context of acquisitions, where we take a pragmatic and concrete approach to any identified risks.

Defending intellectual property rights

Optimal defence of a client’s interests implies being proactive and proposing to take enforcement actions that are consistent and appropriate to the client’s objectives.

The intellectual property team’s lawyers are experienced in the practice of litigation, particularly in the field of copyright and trademark law, where they constantly monitor developments in the case law.

 When we consider that a dispute cannot have a satisfactory outcome in front of the courts or that legal proceedings will involve disproportionate costs, we are always ready to recommend the implementation of alternative modes of dispute resolution (mediation, settlement etc.).

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