Protecting your work: trade mark, design, copyright, domain name
Four different protections, three offices or none, four costs. The right reflex depends on what you have created and on who could copy it.
Brussels Bar lawyer since 2021, Certified data protection officer (Maastricht), Published fees
The steps, in order
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01
The sign that identifies you: the trade mark
Name, logo, slogan. Availability search, choice of the classes of the Nice classification, filing with the BOIP (Benelux) or the EUIPO (Union). Protection for ten years, renewable without limit.
What it costs: Search €390 · filing €890 + official fee (Benelux) · 5 working days
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02
The appearance of a product: the design
The shape of an object, a pattern, an interface. Filing requires novelty. A disclosure made by you, by your successor in title or by a third party on the basis of what you supplied leaves twelve months before it becomes an obstacle, counted from the filing or from the priority claimed. The same rule applies where the disclosure follows an abuse against you.
What it costs: On quotation, according to the number of views and territories
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03
What you write, draw, code: copyright
No filing. Proof of date (i-DEPOT with the BOIP) and a chain of written assignments with your employees and your freelancers.
What it costs: Assignment of rights billed by time, written cap · i-DEPOT: a few tens of euros in fees
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04
Your address: the domain name
A domain name is reserved, it is not filed. For a .be, disputes are settled through the out-of-court procedure of CEPANI; a registered trade mark is the best argument you can bring there.
What it costs: Advice billed by time, written estimate
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05
When you are copied
Recording of the facts, reasoned formal notice, opposition before the office if a similar filing is published, injunctive action before the Enterprise Court as a last resort.
What it costs: Formal notice €690 · BOIP opposition €2,400 · EUIPO opposition €2,600 · litigation on quotation
What not to do
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Believing that a domain name protects the name
It reserves an address. The exclusive right comes from the registered trade mark.
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Publishing the product before filing the design
The grace period exists, twelve months, but a competitor filing in the meantime would complicate everything.
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Letting a contractor keep the rights to what it delivered
Without a written assignment, it keeps them. You pay for a licence without knowing it.
Frequently asked questions
Forty-five minutes to scope the matter, €120 excl. VAT
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A 45-minute video call, prepaid.
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A written report in five points within 24 working hours: the problem as you put it, the options, my recommendation, the budget for what follows, the timing.
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If you instruct me within 30 days, the €120 is deducted from the fee.