The Procedure
From initial enquiry to resolution, step by step.
Every dispute we handle moves through the same procedure: enquiry, assessment, engagement, mapping, negotiation, and — where the parties agree — a written settlement carried through to the registers. No step requires a courtroom.
One procedure, nine stages.
Overlapping rights are rarely resolved by force of argument alone. They are resolved by a sequence: understand the registers before anyone makes a claim, declare neutrality before anyone is asked to trust it, open the dialogue informed rather than hopeful, and conclude the arrangement in writing so it cannot simply return.
Each stage below has a purpose, an owner, and a point at which it ends. Some matters pass through all nine; some end early — when the assessment shows there was never a real conflict at all.
The procedure
Enquiry
Initial enquiry
A party describes the overlap: the marks, the registrations, the jurisdictions, and what is actually blocking them. Nothing is agreed yet — this is the shape of the problem. We reply promptly with a candid view on whether the matter suits our neutral method, including when the honest answer is that there is no real conflict.
Assessment
Preliminary assessment
Before anything is committed, we examine the registers themselves: live and dormant rights, renewal status, classes, territories, and how the overlap would be treated in the forums that matter. The parties receive a plain assessment of where they stand — not a sales document.
Engagement
Engagement and neutrality
BrandConcern is engaged by one party, or jointly by both. Scope, fees and the boundaries of our neutrality are fixed in writing from the start: we are not retained to win, and the other side is told so. Neutrality declared early is what makes the later opening acceptable.
Preparation
Terrain mapping
The full procedural landscape is laid out: which forums are open, which deadlines are running, where each counterpart's position is strong, weak, or merely expensive. This map — twenty-three years of practice behind it — is what makes the opening credible rather than aspirational.
Opening
The informed opening
We approach the other side directly, and informed. Most overlaps persist because no credible opening was ever made. Ours sets out the terrain, the realistic outcomes, and the cost of the alternative — as a party with a position, not an adversary.
Negotiation
The negotiation window
A structured exchange, worked with both parties at once. Transfer, coexistence, withdrawal or renewal are placed on the table as concrete arrangements, not slogans, and tested against each party's real commercial position until one holds.
Only if required
Procedural pressure
Where dialogue stalls, we know which filing, at which office, in which jurisdiction, concentrates minds — opposition, invalidation, non-use action — and when invoking it resolves rather than escalates. It is a lever, never a first resort, and it is announced before it is used.
Formalisation
Settlement and registration
The arrangement is concluded in writing and carried through to the registries: assignments recorded, limitations entered, surrenders filed. An agreement that never reaches the register is only half a resolution — the overlap would simply resurface in another forum or another decade.
Aftercare
Closure and maintenance
We check that the arrangement holds: renewals brought current, portfolios brought back into active maintenance, and the overlap confirmed closed. Resolution is measured by whether commerce can proceed — and keeps proceeding.
Most matters end well before the last stage.
The procedure exists so that pressure is applied where it changes minds and withheld where it merely hardens them. Many overlaps resolve at the opening or in the negotiation window; a matter that reaches procedural pressure has usually been offered every alternative first. Where the assessment finds no genuine conflict, the matter ends at stage two — with the parties none the poorer for having asked.
What we ask at first contact
The enquiry stage works best when it is concrete. Three things let us give you a candid answer quickly — and anything missing we will establish ourselves from the registers.
The rights in question
The marks, registrations and applications involved — with numbers where you have them, and anything you suspect sits on the other side.
The jurisdictions
Where the block is felt and where the rights live. Overlaps rarely respect borders, and the forums available differ by territory.
The commercial cost
What the overlap stops you doing, launching, or licensing. The measure of resolution is commerce proceeding — we need to know what is standing still.
Enquiries are treated as confidential from the first message, whether or not an engagement follows.
Where the procedure ends
Every path through the procedure arrives at one of the same outcomes: transfer, coexistence, withdrawal or renewal — concluded in writing and registered, so the overlap is closed rather than postponed.
Start the procedure with an enquiry.
Tell us where your rights overlap. We will tell you plainly whether the matter suits our method — and what stage one would look like for you.
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