Software / Domain names
Beau de Loménie has a team of experts specialised in IT/digital matters and associated rights.
Their professions, as patent and trademark attorneys and lawyers specialised in intellectual property, enable them to support and advise companies in all IT fields, notably to help them define strategies for the protection, commercial use, assignment and licencing of their intangible assets (patents, domain names, etc.).
Software: acquisition and protection of your rights
Our IT specialists support their clients in obtaining and securing their IP rights. In this regard, Beau de Loménie is authorised to represent its French and foreign clients during the procedures for examining applications for patents covering computer-implemented inventions before the main offices, notably in Europe (EPO) and in the United States (USPTO). In this context, our IP attorneys and specialised IP lawyers will be able to support you in preparing the elements necessary for protection of software (operating systems, internet sites, mobile applications, video games, etc.) by copyright: registration of source code, object code, executable file and the associated documentation and usage manuals, notably with the French APP (Agence de Protection des Programmes), bailiffs’ reports, notarial registration, etc.). They will also assist you in protecting your databases and the related sui generis rights.
Beau de Loménie’s IP attorneys can also advise you in the management of your software developments in accordance with your distribution strategies (verification of compliance with the conditions for the use of open source software, problems of “contamination”, etc.). They also carry out studies on freedom-to-operate for software, notably in relation to free software or patents. They can also take part in writing and negotiating software contracts (contracts for the development of specific software, outsourcing contracts, SAAS (Software As A Service) contracts, ASP (Application Service Provider) contracts, maintenance contracts, software integration contracts), as well as assignment or license contracts concerning software.
Our experts also carry out audits crucial for the activity of start-up companies, notably to define their protection strategy and assist them in due diligence (for example, in the context of acquisition or transfer of companies or intangible assets).
Domain names: acquisition and protection of your rights
In matters of domain names, our experts can support you in researching and monitoring for strategic purposes, in addition to reserving domains.
Currently, it is essential to secure the rights related to domain names in order to identify one’s trademark or other distinctive sign, such as the company name or a commercial name, via one’s Internet site. Our experts regularly intervene get involved early on in projects in order to advise you, define a global strategy adapted to your requirements, confirm the availability of the chosen domain names, and later on to fight competitors and other third parties who wish to reserve a domain name that is identical or close to yours. Due to its trusted network of correspondents, Beau de Loménie is able to handle all your reservations of domain names across the world. Our IP attorneys can also help you to recover or request the deletion of a domain name registered by a third party, notably by initiating a UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy) procedure to obtain the desired transfer or deletion. Lastly, they can support you in the pre-litigation and litigation phases, in case of a potential dispute affecting your domain names.
Audit and valuation
In the context of managing the IP rights of its clients or due diligence operations, the firm regularly acts to carry out audits of intangible assets of its clients, to check the extent and appropriateness of their protection in relation to their uses and activities, to advise the stakeholders in transactions concerning the assignment or acquisition of rights or when setting up a network of licenses of rights, for example.
Our experts support you in these audit and valuation procedures covering all or part of your Intellectual Property intangible assets.
Their actions in this regard firstly include the study of your activities, both in terms of fields of activity and geographical location, in order to define, with you and for you, your requirements for protection to provide you with the most trouble-free operations, within the constraints specific to you.
Secondly, our patent and trademark attorneys prepare, according to your requirements, the framework for the checks to be carried out in the audit (validity of these rights, etc.). They then prepare an audit report, showing you the state of the portfolio of existing rights, as well as its compatibility with your requirements and, where applicable, recommendations that will be of practical use to you to rationalise and/or supplement protection everywhere where this may be necessary. Furthermore, also based on a network of partners specialised in taxation and accountancy, our experts will be able to support you in the evaluation of IP titles. Whether this is for accounting purposes, in view of a sale or purchase, intra-group transfers or the drawing up of licences covering an IP title or a portfolio of IP rights and, therefore, the generation of royalties, Beau de Loménie will put all its expertise at your disposal to provide you with the elements enabling you to defend the value of these titles according to your goals. To do this, our IP attorneys support you in collecting the elements necessary for this evaluation, particularly concerning those related to the market and the commercial use of the rights by their holder. According to tax recommendations and your requirements, our experts can assist with a tax inspection or in estimating harm suffered as asserted during an action for infringement, or in estimating the value of your portfolio of IP rights.
Litigation
Beau de Loménie also assists its clients with litigation in France and abroad. In this regard, it organises seizures of counterfeit goods or the procedures necessary to collect evidence. It takes part in the preparation of documents (summons, submissions, notices of opposition, etc.), in administrative procedures before patent offices (opposition), as well as litigation procedures before national Courts (actions for infringement and/or annulment) and the bodies specific to domain names (UDRP, ICANN procedures). It also advises its clients in matters of tax optimisation in relation with specialist lawyers and to defend their interests in case of disputes with the tax authorities.