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ip & unfair competition
Schoenherr's intellectual property and unfair competition experts provide full ip coverage throughout the CEE region.
"An outstanding firm offering all-inclusive IP advice."
A holistic and business-oriented approach to brands, designs, inventions, creations, know-how and the related areas of advertising, media, sports and entertainment is key to finding efficient and sustainable solutions for clients. This is the approach of the intellectual property (ip) team of Schoenherr, a highly specialised and internationally regarded group of lawyers – all of them truly dedicated to ip and all of them recognised experts within the ip community.
The group offers full ip coverage via the Schoenherr international offices throughout the CEE region. Closely linked with specialists of other Schoenherr teams (such as regulatory, competition, life sciences, civil law and new technologies) the ip team offers clients quick, tailor-made solutions for their demands in the increasingly complex environment of protecting, marketing, defending and managing intellectual property.
protecting your ideas
Based on the experience of more than six decades of protecting ip rights around the globe, the Schoenherr ip team supports and guides clients all the way from the protection of the first idea (be it a new brand, a technical solution, a software, a design, a creative performance or a business method) to a set of registered and unregistered ip rights ensuring the best protection for the clients' business. This may include a tailor-made protection strategy, secrecy measures, clearance searches for conflicting rights and national, EU-wide or international registrations of trademarks and designs.
marketing your product
The Schoenherr ip team is committed to understanding the client's business, products and marketing strategies. With this understanding, they advise clients in all legal aspects of communication and marketing (in particular labelling, product appearance, marketing campaigns and competition strategies). They also provide support in relation to:
enforcing your rights
When infringements come up or the validity of ip rights is challenged, the Schoenherr ip team enforces its clients' rights efficiently out of court and if necessary in administrative, civil and criminal proceedings in court, including European instances and – via a comprehensive network of specialised law firms – also in jurisdictions outside Schoenherr's coverage. Moreover, the ip team regularly conducts domain name proceedings nationally or via UDRP.
managing your assets
Simply registering ip rights is not enough. A powerful ip portfolio needs diligent care (updating the lists of services and goods and the territorial scope of protection as a company develops its business, internal ip manuals and courses to safely use IPRs avoiding, e.g. dilution of the brand, and providing ip due diligence, licensing in/out, 24/7 online access to our updated database of the client's IPRs, etc.). The ip team is happy to take care of your ip portfolio and to provide "IP Lifecycle Management".
our services
- advertising
- anti-piracy
- art
- border detention
- brand development
- copyright
- designs
- domain names
- ip litigation
- ip transactional work
- know-how protection
- licensing
- new media
- patents
- prosecution (trademarks and designs)
- research and development agreements
- software
- trademarks
- trade secrets
- unfair commercial practices
news
newsletter
Greenwashing: European Commission FAQs published
As the EU has been working for years to combat greenwashing at the legislative level, the deadline for national transposition (27 March 2026) and subsequent application (27 September 2026) of the new Directive (EU) 2024/825 on the empowerment of consumers ("EmpCo Directive" or "ECGT Directive") is approaching fast. And while advertisers are well advised to design their environmental advertising with foresight, many uncertainties remain as to when and how advertising campaigns and the use of logos will be affected.
newsletter
More than just a trademark? How the EmpCo Directive could affect brands and labels
By 27 September 2026, companies will have to comply with the stricter rules on environmental advertising introduced by the Directive (EU) 2024/825 on the empowerment of consumers ("EmpCo Directive" or "ECGT Directive"). With the various casuistic prohibitions that will be incorporated into the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, it may be difficult for advertisers to keep track of what is expected of them under this new regime. In particular, it is often overlooked that not only advertisements, slogans and packaging, but also trademarks may fall within the scope of the EmpCo Directive.
event
Österreichischer Patentrechtstag 2025
12. Dezember 2025 | Österreichisches Patentamt, Wien
recognitions
awards and excellent rankings
Our Austrian IP team has been recognised for their exceptional work over the past year, winning the "Austria Trademark Litigation Firm of the Year" award at the Global IP Awards by WTR and IAM.
This achievement is further underscored by the team's consistently excellent IP rankings in Chambers and Partners, Legal 500, JUVE Verlag and Managing IP.
trademark & design management
Schoenherr has more than 60 years of experience in the administration and enforcement of trademarks and designs, supporting clients in trademark administration and management, design litigation and more.
know-how
authored books
An essential part of our work - besides legal advice of course - is also writing academic works. We consider fundamental topics such as trademark law, and regularly update our publications when relevant innovations arise. In addition, we also analyse newly emerging trademark-related topics which often come about in times of digitalisation.
team
our ip team
Meet the team of international ip experts, specified in intellectual property and unfair competition matters.