IP Rights Investigation

IPR Services

Protecting Your IP with Precision and Confidentiality.

PROBE provides IPR investigation services. Intellectual Property Rights remain a key practice area, particularly for Trademark Use (national marks, EUTM, IRs), Clearance and Infringement, Prior Art, Contentious IP, and all things Online or Domain-related.

Confidentiality is the keystone of our business.

Online Investigation

Probe’s online digital investigation services have expanded significantly and remain a key service offering, for online brand investigations, encompassing sellers, retailers, counterfeit and grey market goods, brand misuse, social media, and domains.

Our established methodology, especially when utilised alongside Test Purchase programmes, gathers evidence of infringements and identifies the sellers and manufacturers, their commercial activities, locations, and sources of products, as well as the shipping and distribution processes involved.

Test (Trap) Purchases

By anonymously purchasing products, Test Purchase, we trace the transaction through the supply chain, enabling us to identify, locate, and then profile the operation, the point of manufacturing, as well as the supply and distribution chains.

Whether it involves a single online test purchase or a programme involving multiple transactions from various retailers, whether they are physical stores or online, we gather tangible evidence of ongoing events and provide contextual background; our expertise in supply chains and export operations will deliver a comprehensive global overview.

We import goods from all corners of the globe, ranging from a single widget to containers of manufactured goods.

Trademark Use - Validation, Verification and Infringement

It is often essential to establish facts surrounding the use of a trademark. For example, a trademark may be infringed or otherwise used in an unauthorised manner by a third party.

Probe’s Trademark Use investigations aim to provide clients with an accurate account of whether a trademark is being used or commercialised in the marketplace, to determine if the trademark is vulnerable to cancellation actions, and to establish if there is any residual commercial interest in the trademark by its owner. The purpose is to assess whether there could be potential opposition to a new product or a proposed business plan, due to the existence of an existing trademark.

Lookalike – aka Dupes

Probe has increasingly worked in the realm of lookalike products, also known as ‘dupes’, of our clients’ designs and products. By utilising our proven investigative methodology, we are able to engage with the entities/individuals responsible, ranging from retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers responsible for the ‘Dupes’ for the client to assess risk and to strategise their response to combat them.

Patent & Design Rights

Probe IPR examines the commercialisation, utilisation, and application of Patent and Design Rights, with an emphasis on Prior Art and licensing.

Trade Secrets

Trade secrets and confidential business knowledge, which are not protected by patents, represent tangible intellectual property assets. At Probe, we analyse public domain references to such intangibles, for both clients’ assets and those of third-party interests.

The adoption of a client’s trade secret by a competitor or third party can adversely affect the client’s commercial activities, both in terms of reputation and finances.