Intellectual property
Ideas deserve protection. Rights deserve enforcement.
Strong intellectual property starts with a clear strategy.
Whether you’re launching a new brand, developing technology, creating content or defending your market position, intellectual property is often one of your most valuable business assets.
Intellectual property comes in many forms: trademarks, patents, designs, copyright, software, databases, trade secrets, know-how, domain names and other intangible
assets that help businesses stand out and compete.
We help organisations identify, protect, commercialise and enforce their intellectual property
rights — both in and outside the courtroom.
From day-to-day advice to high-stakes disputes, we provide pragmatic legal support tailored
to your business objectives.
IP strategy & Advisory
Strong intellectual property starts with a clear strategy.
Intellectual property should support your business goals, not merely exist as a legal asset.
We help organisations build IP strategies that protect innovation, strengthen market position and reduce legal risk.
We advise on:
- IP portfolio management
- Protection strategies and registrations: trademarks, designs, patents
- Technology licensing
- Research and development projects
- Employee and contractor IP arrangements
- Trade secrets, knowhow and confidential information
- Due diligence exercises
- IP aspects of M&A transactions
Trademarks, designs & patent
Protecting intellectual property starts with securing the right protection in the right jurisdictions.
We guide clients throughout the lifecycle of their IP rights.
Our expertise includes:
- Trademark clearance searches
- Trademark registration and portfolio management
- Design registrations
- Patent strategy support
- Filing strategies
- International protection
- Portfolio reviews
- IP audits
We regularly represent clients before national, European and international IP offices.
Copyright, software & digital Assets
Protecting creativity in a digital world.
The increasing importance of software, AI, data and digital content raises new questions around ownership, licensing and enforcement.
We help clients navigate these challenges.
We assist with:
- Copyright protection
- Software licensing
- Open-source compliance
- Digital content rights
- Databases and data rights
- AI-generated content
- Copyright and AI
- Technology development agreements
- SaaS and software contracts
IP litigation & enforcement
When your rights are challenged, decisive action matters
Protecting intellectual property often requires more than registration. It requires enforcement.
Our IP team assists clients in preventing, managing and resolving IP disputes through both judicial and extrajudicial measures.
We represent clients in:
- Trademark disputes
- Copyright disputes
- Patent disputes and Unified Patent Court (UPC) proceedings as UPC Representative
- Design disputes
- Trade secret disputes
- Unfair competition matters
- Domain name disputes
- Online infringement cases
Our IP ligitation services includes:
- Cease-and-desist strategies
- Settlement negotiations
- Injunction proceedings
- Preliminary relief proceedings
- Counterfeit litigation
- Cross-border enforcement actions
- Customs enforcement measures
- Online platform takedown procedures
We focus on strategy and results, whether that means swift settlement or decisive enforcement.
Anti-counterfeiting & seizure measures
Protecting innovation against imitation.
Counterfeiting can seriously damage brands, products and reputations.
We help clients identify infringement and take immediate action.
Our expertise includes:
- Seizure measures against counterfeit goods
- Descriptive seizure proceedings
- Evidence-gathering measures
- Counterfeit litigation
- Border and customs measures
- Urgent injunction proceedings
- Online counterfeit enforcement
We regularly assist clients in obtaining and enforcing measures aimed at stopping infringement quickly and effectively.
Proceedings before IP offices
Advocacy beyond the courts. Not every IP dispute ends up before a judge
We represent clients before trademark, design and patent offices in a wide range of
administrative proceedings.
We assist with:
- Oppositions and cancellation / invalidity actions related to trademarks, designs and patents (BOIP, EUIPO, EPO)
- Appeals before IP offices and courts
- Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), such as domain name disputes before WIPO etc.
IP in technology & innovation
Where intellectual property meets emerging technology.
Innovation increasingly sits at the intersection of intellectual property, data, AI and digital regulation.
We help clients navigate complex questions such as AI and copyright, AI-generated content, training data, software and database protection and other IP implications on digital compliance.
This is where our combined expertise in Intellectual Property and Technology & Data creates real value.
Legal FAQ-ups
We found a great name! How to protect it?
The safest way to protect your business name and/or logo is to register it as a trademark. A trademark registration allows you to prevent others from using an identical or similar name for identical or similar products or services.
Before using and/or registering, you should check whether your name is still available (both as a
tradename, trademark and domain name). Ideally, you file your trademark before launching publicly or investing heavily in branding — changing your name later can be costly.
In short: check availability, secure your domain name, and register your trademark early to avoid
problems down the line.
We’re shipping code as never before. But who’s the captain of the code base?
Watch out for pirates! IP doesn’t automatically belong to your company.
Make sure IP rights are properly assigned – even by the founders. Many startups rely on freelancers, so carefully review their agreements. Also consider IP developed before incorporation.
Make sure you do sign IP assignment agreements, employment agreements contain IP clauses and freelance developers transfer all IP rights to the company. If it wasn’t for you, do it for your investors. They’ll care.
We have been cooking something new. Should we check whether our technology is patentable?
Yes — and this should be assessed as early as possible. If your startup develops a technical innovation, it may qualify for patent protection, which can strengthen your competitive position and increase your company’s value for investors.
Timing is critical: public disclosures (such as product launches, pitch decks, GitHub repositories or presentations) may destroy patentability. Consider a patentability assessment before publicly revealing your technology.
Make sure you do sign IP assignment agreements, employment agreements contain IP clauses and freelance developers transfer all IP rights to the company. If it wasn’t for you, do it for your investors. They’ll care.
When should a startup work with Nuans?
‘As soon as possible’ won’t do the deal, right?
But honestly: as soon as possible — within reason.
We understand that legal budgets are limited in the early days and that you’re already stretched thin. Our goal is to help you get the essentials right in a pragmatic way.
If we understand your company, your story and your challenges, we can guide you and flag issues before they become problems.
Legal support shouldn’t slow you down — it should help you move faster and safer.
