The MARQUES Unfair Competition Team has published two more reports as part of its project on company names, trade names and other business identifiers.

In October last year, the Team published a study on the topic, covering 14 countries. As anticipated, the survey revealed a great divergence in the law on trade names, company names and other business identifiers – even within the EU. In particular, there are differences regarding what qualifies as a company/trade name, whether registration and/or use is required, transfer, the scope of protection and the impact on trade marks.

The results were presented in a questionnaire and an executive summary.

Now the Team is publishing more detailed reports on the situation in various jurisdictions, analysing legislation, practical issues and dispute proceedings.

The reports are written in an accessible way to assist businesses who are interested to get a detailed perspective on certain issues in each market.

The country reports follow the structure of the questionnaire and executive summary, to maintain the unity of the presentation.

The first two reports to be published are on the Czech Republic (written by Karin Pomaizlová) and Germany (written by Sascha Abrar).

Further reports on other countries will be posted soon as part of this project.

The two reports, and last year’s study, can be downloaded from the Unfair Competition Team page on the MARQUES website (MARQUES log in required).