Trademark Dictionary
The adversarial stage in trademark law refers to the stage of an opposition proceeding when the parties present their respective cases and evidence to the trademark office in order to support their positions on the validity or registration of a trademark.
The adversarial stage typically takes place after the Notice of Opposition has been filed and any cooling-off period has ended without a settlement agreement being reached. During this stage, the parties engage in a process similar to a trial, presenting evidence and legal arguments to the trademark office in order to support their respective positions on the trademark registration.
The trademark office will review the evidence and arguments presented by both parties and make a decision on the validity or registration of the trademark based on the legal and factual issues at hand. The trademark office's decision may be appealed by either party to a higher court, depending on the specific jurisdiction and the available avenues for appeal.
TrackMyStack is an app built first and foremost to solve a real problem - helping individuals to easily track their financial situation with maximum ease and retain an up to date view of their investments. “The app stores are a bit like the Wild West sometimes, so we want to be able to prevent others apps from trying to imitate our branding.” Read the full story of the founder of TrackMyStack, Georgios Kounenis.
Cases of multinational companies putting claims against much smaller businesses are far from uncommon, but their result is almost always the same - an absolute PR nightmare for the corporate giants. Oatly AB, a leading plant-based dairy alternatives producer, is amongst the companies that have fallen under public scrutiny after their overly aggressive trademark enforcement actions.
Many entrepreneurs still consider trademark registration to be the least important step in the process of establishing their brand. This can become a big issue. Not registering a trademark from the start leaves a company vulnerable to potential copycats and other forms of brand infringement that can significantly damage its reputation and hamper growth.
