Czech Republic

Firm overview

Havlík Švorčík and Partners, Law and Patent Office (formerly Všetečka Zelený Švorčík and partners) is a leading IP and corporate law firm founded in 1990 in Prague. With over forty team members, the firm is one of the largest and best established IP practices in Czechia and Slovakia. Our clients are domestic and international companies from the fields of pharmaceutical and chemical industry, automotive, defense, entertainment and consumer packaged goods and retail as well as small and middle seized companies and start-ups and individual right holders.

We prosecute applications for patents, trademarks and designs before the Czech and Slovak Industrial Property Offices and EPO, EUIPO and WIPO. Our patent attorneys and translators cover all fields of technology from mechanical engineering, construction, IT to pharma and life sciences.

We provide strategic advice and administer several global patent, trademark and copyright licensing portfolios. The firm assists their clients in monitoring IP rights and enforcing them through court litigation in Czech or Slovak courts and other available procedures. We regularly litigate in patent and trademark infringement matters. Furthermore, the firm has an extensive anti-counterfeiting practice involving customs seizures and raids.

Our partners Otakar Svorcik, Martin Svorcik and Michal Havlik serve as panelists for the .eu and .cz domain name disputes at the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre in Geneva and the Czech Arbitration Court in Prague. Michal Havlik is also a UDRP panelist for generic top-level domain names at the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre.

Firm overview

The firm handles all IP matters including patents, utility designs, industrial designs, trademarks. We file numerous Czech and EU trademark applications every year. We represent local and foreign clients in prosecution and contentious matters at the IPO, EUIPO, WIPO as well as at the courts. The practitioners have extensive practise in IP matters. We also conduct patent and trademark searches, handle counterfeiting matters for leading companies in various business sectors, unfair competition matters and represent the clients in court proceedings in IP and unfair competition cases. We are known for excellent advice in contentious matters aas well as in representation before the courts.

Firm overview

HAVEL & PARTNERS, with offices in Prague, Brno, Pilsen, Olomouc, Ostrava (Czech Republic), Bratislava (Slovakia) and a new representative office in Frankfurt (Germany), has a team of 350 lawyers, tax advisors and patent attorneys, approximately 200 associates and a total of 500 employees, and is the largest independent law firm in Central Europe.

This has allowed us to build the largest intellectual property team with unparalleled specialization and experience in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 25 specialized IP lawyers offer an unbeatable degree of specialization in individual fields, with detailed knowledge of the market and the latest trends.

We advise the largest multinational corporations, established family-owned businesses and individuals; in a number of cases we have set the policy for the protection and monetization of intellectual property in start-ups, helping them to succeed and grow.

HAVEL & PARTNERS provides a complete service in the area of patent protection in all technical fields, validation of European patents, supplementary protection certificates, utility models and designs.
HAVEL & PARTNERS has also created a fully dedicated IP litigation team, specialized in all types of IP litigation before national and international courts and arbitration tribunals.

HAVEL & PARTNERS also has experts dedicated to IP transactions and technology transfer on a global scale, using various structures and vehicles, as well as designing licensing and other exploitation of internal or acquired IP. We are also very active in the venture capital and start-up world.

We are proud of our expertise and share our know-how on many occasions through our own training initiative, HAVEL & PARTNERS Academy, or by organizing workshops for students at universities, for start-ups or for the scientific community to increase their IP awareness.

Firm overview

Zivko Mijatovic & Partners (ZMP) is a full-service IP law firm, established in 1939 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, as a general practice law firm. It has grown progressively and today consists of 15 offices in 14 European countries. The overall protection of all IP rights, including prosecution, enforcement and litigation, is provided through the network of ZMP offices covering the Balkan Peninsula and Central and Eastern Europe, with a liaison office in Alicante, Spain, providing legal services in relation to European trademarks and designs and IP legal services in Spain. Over the last 30 years, ZMP’s primary activity has been the protection, via prosecution and litigation, of all IP rights.

The firm has gained reputation for having stellar and efficient services in the region. ZMP is known for being a creative, open and straightforward firm, with a meticulous approach tailored to the client’s needs. ZMP’s constant presence in Central and Eastern Europe means that clients receive immediate and simultaneous service across the region, simply by contacting one of the offices. That is why the service provided by ZMP is unique in the region.

ZMP offers a full range of IP services, providing legal assistance and advice on the protection of IP rights and management and enforcement of the same across Central and Eastern Europe. Services include filing and prosecution of IP rights; searches and watching services; IP portfolio management; dispute resolution; advice and representation in infringement and enforcement matters. ZMP and its attorneys are authorized to represent clients before judicial authorities, IP offices, customs offices and different administrative authorities of the countries in which the firm’s offices are located.

ZMP is particularly active in matters of counterfeiting and piracy. Given that the Western Balkans, due to its geographical location, is a gateway to the EU market and a fertile ground for the production and distribution of counterfeit goods, Rights' holders are advised to consider the measures available across the region and contemplate implementing a strategy that recognizes the root of the problem and provides a long-term solution. Countries of the Western Balkans should be considered as a single region. ZMP is uniquely positioned to provide this service through its network of tightly linked local offices. The firm has therefore introduced a “Customs Package” whereby it handles customs applications, seizures and destruction of all counterfeit products flowing through the countries of former Yugoslavia and Albania (eight jurisdictions in total) through only one point of contact, thus saving costs, avoiding heavy administrative burdens and consolidating customs matters with one agent.

As part of the firm´s business growth strategy, ZMP is more active on social media, dynamic, approachable and always on alert on the virtual space to detect any kind of unfair competition in the market through typo squatting, metatags, spamming and cybersquatting because we focus on our clients and consumer protection. ZMP strives towards corporate responsibility, through sponsorship activities and the number of professionals employed in our offices has increased by a minimum of 10% annually, with constant investment in education.

Network Memberships:
INTA, ECTA, AIPPI, MARQUES, PTMG