Let every product on your stand be legally screened.
Pre-fair screening for the patent, trademark, and design risks of the products to be exhibited: risk levels, precautionary options, and evidence preparation.
Risk comes to the stand with you
Most injunction raids at German trade fairs come as no surprise: your competitor has known for months, from your website or from earlier fairs, what you are going to exhibit. A pre-fair rights analysis identifies which product may collide with which right before you set out, and opens a window in which to take precautions.
The scope of the analysis
Working from the list of products to be exhibited, we search the registered patents, utility models, trademarks and designs in the target market (DE/EU), review packaging, catalogue and stand visuals for trademark and copyright exposure, and map the history of earlier cease-and-desist letters and disputes. The output is a risk rating and a recommended action for each product.
Precautionary options
A high-risk product is either left at home or modified. A medium-risk product calls for a protective brief (Schutzschrift) and a defence file. A low-risk product needs an evidence folder — your own design records and prior-use evidence. The same search shows up any gaps in your own registrations, so the file also prepares you to go on the offensive (anti-counterfeiting).
Why German fairs concentrate risk
Germany's specialised IP courts can grant an einstweilige Verfügung — an interim injunction — within hours, and fair cities keep on-duty chambers ready in season. Two features raise the stakes further. The Gebrauchsmuster (utility model) is registered without substantive examination, so a competitor can hold a fresh, untested right and still enforce it at your stand. And customs can act before the hall opens: under Regulation (EU) No 608/2013, rights holders file applications that let officials detain suspect exhibits at the border. The analysis therefore looks beyond granted patents to pending applications, unexamined rights and the customs register — the question is not only who has a right, but who has a weapon that works this week.
A plan built backwards from the fair date
The work is planned backwards from the date of the fair. Product list and priority: every item to be exhibited is ranked by risk. Screening: a search of the DPMA and EUIPO registers in the target market for patents, utility models, trade marks and designs, together with a copyright check on the packaging and catalogue images. Report: risk gradings product by product and recommended actions, delivered in writing. Putting the precautions in place: modification of the products you decide on, an evidence file, or preparation of a protective brief. Arrangements for the day: the stand team is left with a conduct guide and an emergency contact card. What you get: the risk matrix, the evidence-file template and the protocol for the day of the fair.
Who engages us, and what you receive
The analysis is commissioned by exporters exhibiting in Germany for the first time, by regulars who have changed product lines or suppliers, and by companies that received warning letters in earlier seasons. Your own portfolio comes out of the same search stronger: where your Turkish registrations under the Industrial Property Law (No 6769) have no counterpart in the target market, a filing strategy can be planned properly rather than squeezed into the weeks before the fair.
You receive a product-level risk table with a clear action per item — modify, withhold, defend or clear — plus a stand-day conduct card and an escalation chain with named contacts. Whatever the fair brings, the reaction file is ready: deadlines, contacts and draft responses are prepared before departure, and the thread continues in post-fair dispute follow-up.
We are by your side for Pre-Fair Rights Analysis
We plan the analysis backwards from your fair calendar: screening → decisions on precautions → protective brief → on-call cover on the day of the fair. That is the chain our Trade Fair Law focus area has run for years; the full preparation checklist is in our guide.
Other Applications of This Service
Interim Injunction & Provisional Legal Protection — our other specialised solutions in this area.
Matter Connections
The focus areas, practice areas, desks and legislation connected with this sub-service.
Our Matters in This Service
The anonymised examples of our work that relate to this service.
Pre-fair protective brief and stand protection
Establishing a protective brief and a stand-day response plan against the risk of a competitor's injunction ahead of a German trade fair.
Review the matter →Dispute · Trade FairSame-day response to an injunction attempt at a trade fair
Managing an injunction attempt that arose during a trade fair — through on-site intervention, court contact and product adjustment — without the stand being shut down.
Review the matter →The Team Delivering This Service
With our multilingual team of lawyers, well-versed in Turkish and German law, we are by your side.
Related Publications
Fresh perspectives and guides from the Knowledge Centre.
Ideally 8-10 weeks before the trade fair: that leaves a window for screening, precautions, and modification if needed. An analysis left to the final week is only in time for a protective brief.
No — unregistered rights and unpublished applications may remain. The aim is not to bring the risk to zero, but to make the known and discoverable risks manageable.
Yes: patent and design risks follow the product, not the brand. The allocation of liability should also be clarified in your customer contract.
Pre-Fair Rights Analysis — get the right legal support.
Let us identify the right solution together, drawing on our experience in Türkiye and the DACH region.