Certificate in Trade Mark Law at Law Society of Ireland – Diploma Centre

On completion of this Certificate in Trademark Law training programme, participants will have:

• An in-depth understanding of the legal issues pertaining to trademark law;
• An ability to apply for registration of trademarks at the Irish Patents Office, EUIPO and WIPO;
• A detailed knowledge of examination, publication, oppositions procedures;
• The skills to manage a trademark portfolio in practice;
• The ability to take an action for infringement of a registered/unregistered trademark;
• A very sound basis for preparing for the registered trademark agent exam offered by the Irish Patents Office.

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Certificate in Trade Mark Law at Law Society of Ireland – Diploma Centre

Modules

The programme is based on the following module scheme and covers key themes as listed below:

Module 1: Introduction to trademarks

• The concept of a trademark,
• Benefits of registration,
• Types of trademarks,
• PGIs, collective, certification, non-conventional,
• Filing systems.

Module 2: Community Trademark Regulation

• Regulation 2015/2424 (23 March 2016),
• Main changes,
• Practical impact.

Module 3: Registering trademarks

• Pre-filing considerations, searches and parameters,
• Classification of trademarks (Nice, Vienna),
• Application to Irish Patents Office,
• Application to EUIPO,
• Application to WIPO,
• Formality and maintenance procedures.

Module 4: Trademark registrability

• Refusal on absolute grounds,
• Acquired distinctiveness,
• Refusal on relative grounds,
• Official objections,
• Overcoming objections and refusals.

Module 5: Publication and oppositions

• Publication and its significance,
• Observations, differences at IPO, EUIPO, WIPO,
• Oppositions practice and procedure,
• Irish v EUIPO approach to oppositions,
• Appeals,
• Registration.

Module 6: Revocation and invalidity

• Trademark use, including genuine use,
• Revocation, applicable grounds,
• Acquiescence and coexistence,
• Invalidity practice and procedure,
• Appeals.

Module 7: Infringement of trademarks

• Types of infringement,
• Defences,
• Remedies,
• Passing-off,
• Litigation.

Module 8: Registrable transactions

• Assignments,
• Licences,
• Security interests,
• Agreements, recording transactions.

Module 9: Advanced trademarks

• Comparative advertising,
• Exhaustion of rights/parallel imports,
• Anti-counterfeiting,
• Online infringement/web-blocking orders,
• Domain name infringement, UDPR,
• Plain packaging legislation.

Module 10: Design Law

• An introduction to design law in Ireland and the EU,
• Unregistered and registered designs,
• Infringement and remedies.

Workshops

Workshops are interactive and focus on analysing selected case studies to consolidate the student’s knowledge. There is a key emphasis on a practical approach to the case studies. The final workshop will act as a revision of the core issues and as preparation for the Irish trademark agent exam.

Workshops take place on three Saturdays throughout the course.