Sell-off agreement, a solution for a brand registration fail

12.11.2018

Wide known fact: When an owner has a pending trademark application is entitled to market goods and services bearing the brand that is still to be registered.

However, he can meet the situation in which the registration could not go smoothly. For instance, if conflicts are arising with earlier marks, then the brand might not be registered at all. In that case, the following question pops up: what happens with the goods put on market bearing the brand at issue?

A similar trademark situation

This is just the case we had for one of our clients. We handled it successfully by managing to cancel a similar trademark which was already applied for goods existing on the market. So now we can say that one possible solution is worth tackling and has the advantage of amiably settling the discharge of products is the conclusion of a sell-off agreement.

How you can recognize a similar trademark?

In order to avoid your trademark registration failure, you have to conduct a research and compare yours with other existent trademarks on the respective market you wish to enter. That way you’ll be sure similarities with other existing on that market won’t deny you the chances to succeed.

Also, to be fully covered you should contact a legal team that can offer the proper support in this kind of issues.

What’s a sell-off agreement?

This type of agreement aims at settling the conditions for the exhaustion of products inventory. It usually contains clauses regarding the selling-off of an existing inventory (manufactured prior to the conclusion of a contract) and the prevention of manufacturing additional inventory in anticipation of the sell-off period. It could also settle the case where upon expiration of the sell-off period, there would be remaining products that will either be withdrawn from the market or destroyed (providing a certificate of destruction).

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