In French and European law, distinctive signs are all the visual, verbal or symbolic elements that let the public identify a company, its activity or its products and services. They are at the heart of how a business is recognized in the market, and they are protected by a layered set of rules that go far beyond registered trademarks.
The main categories of distinctive signs include:
These signs can be cumulative (a single business often owns several at the same time) and they create a hierarchy of earlier rights that can block later trademark filings under article L. 711-3 of the French Intellectual Property Code.
Four structural reasons why French and European law protect a wide spectrum of distinctive signs, and why a coordinated strategy across all of them is the only way to build a defensible brand portfolio.
Beyond trademarks, French and EU law recognize trade names, corporate names, business signs, domain names, geographical indications and plant variety denominations as distinctive signs. Each follows its own rules of acquisition, scope and enforcement, and most businesses combine several.
Source: French Intellectual Property Code, EU Regulations on GIs and CPVO regulations.
The European Union maintains over 3,500 protected designations of origin (PDO), protected geographical indications (PGI) and traditional specialties guaranteed for food, wine and spirits, governed by EU Regulations 1151/2012, 1308/2013 and 2019/787.
Source: European Commission, eAmbrosia register of EU geographical indications.
Since 1999, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center has administered more than 75,000 UDRP cases. According to WIPO and ICANN statistics, complainants succeed in a substantial majority of cases, with overall success rates commonly reported above 85%. Across all approved UDRP providers, the total number of cases filed since the creation of the system exceeds 100,000.
Source: WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center annual statistics.
Article L. 711-3 of the French Intellectual Property Code lists all the earlier rights that can be invoked against a later trademark application: prior trademarks, trade names, corporate names, business signs, domain names of more than local scope, geographical indications and rights of personality.
Source: French Intellectual Property Code, article L. 711-3.
Beyond trademarks, six distinct types of distinctive signs deserve their own filing, watch and enforcement strategy. Our team covers all of them in coordination, in France, the European Union and worldwide.
The name under which a business is known in trade. Protected by first use without registration. Defended through unfair competition actions and trademark opposition.
The legal name of a company as registered with the RCS in France. Constitutes an earlier right under article L. 711-3 of the French IP Code.
Visible signs displayed on a place of business. Protected by first use within their geographical scope and against confusingly similar later signs.
Identifiers in the DNS. Defended against cybersquatting through UDRP, URS and Syreli procedures, supported by trademark rights and unfair competition law.
PDO, PGI, AOC and AOP for food, wine and spirits. Collective signs reserved to producers from a defined territory, protected by EU Regulations 1151/2012 and 2019/787.
Names of registered plant varieties at the CPVO and the UPOV. Protected jointly with plant breeders’ rights under EU Regulation 2100/94.
Domain names are one of the most exposed categories of distinctive signs. Because they are allocated on a first-come,first-served basis through registrars, anyone can register a domain that matches a third-party brand. Recovering an abusive domain name through court litigation is slow and expensive, which is why ICANN created the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) in 1999. The UDRP is the worldwide standard for the extrajudicial recovery of cybersquatted domains.
The UDRP procedure is administered by accredited dispute resolution centers, the main one being the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center in Geneva. A complainant must establish three cumulative elements:
The decision is rendered by a panel of one or three experts within approximately two months. If the complaint is upheld, the panel orders the transfer or cancellation of the domain name. The UDRP applies to all generic top-level domains (.com, .net, .org, new gTLDs) and to a growing list of country-code TLDs that have opted in. National procedures exist in parallel for many ccTLDs, including Syreli for .fr.
UDRP offers several decisive advantages over national litigation:
Our team has handled more than a thousand UDRP and ccTLD recovery procedures across .com, .fr, .eu, .cn, .uk, .de, .es and many other extensions, on behalf of trademark owners in luxury, fashion, pharma, tech, fintech and food sectors.
Dreyfus advises international clients on every category of distinctive signs: registration and enforcement of trademarks, audit and protection of trade names and corporate names, conflicts between trade names and trademarks, recovery of cybersquatted domains through UDRP, URS and Syreli, protection and licensing of geographical indications, and structuring the full distinctive signs portfolio of a brand.
We assist in registering your distinctive signs (logos, slogans, etc.) to ensure effective legal protection.
We provide portfolio management services, including renewal tracking and strategy development to enhance your distinctive signs.
Infringement actions, nullity actions, and UDRP procedures.
We develop customized strategies to protect your distinctive signs against copying and unauthorized use.
Our experts advise on regulatory compliance and best practices for safe innovation.
We conduct continuous monitoring to detect any rights violations and act quickly to enforce them.
French law recognizes six main categories: trademarks (registered through the INPI and the EUIPO), trade names (acquired by first use), corporate names (registered with the RCS), business signs (visible on the place of business), domain names (acquired through registrars), and geographical indications (PDO, PGI, AOC). Article L. 711-3 of the French Intellectual Property Code lists most of them as earlier rights that can block later trademark filings.
A trademark is a sign registered with the INPI or the EUIPO to identify products or services. A trade name is the name under which a company is known in trade and is protected by first use, without registration. Trade names and trademarks can coexist (the same word may protect both), but they follow different rules of acquisition, scope and enforcement. Conflicts between them are typically resolved through trademark opposition or unfair competition actions.
The primary tool is the UDRP procedure administered by the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. To succeed, you must prove that the disputed domain is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark in which you have rights, that the registrant has no legitimate interest, and that the registration and use are in bad faith. The procedure is faster (around 2 months) and cheaper (around 1,500 dollars for a single-expert filing) than litigation. For .fr domains, the Syreli procedure administered by AFNIC applies.
A Protected Designation of Origin (PDO, or AOP in French) is a European certification that protects names identifying products whose every stage of production is carried out in a defined geographical area using recognized know-how. Famous examples include Champagne, Roquefort, Comté and Parmigiano Reggiano. PDOs are governed by EU Regulation 1151/2012 for food and 1308/2013 for wines. They can be enforced against any use that exploits the reputation of the name, even with mentions like ‘style’ or ‘type’.
A Protected Geographical Indication (PGI, or IGP in French) protects names where at least one stage of production is carried out in the defined geographical area and where the product has a quality, reputation or other characteristic attributable to that area. Examples include Jambon de Bayonne and Cornish Pasty. The PGI link to the territory is less strict than for a PDO, but the protection against misappropriation is similar.
Yes. Since the French ordinance of 13 November 2019, the scope of trademark opposition before the INPI has been broadened to include trade names, corporate names, business signs and domain names of more than local scope, in addition to earlier trademarks. The opposition must be filed within two months of publication and supported by evidence of the prior right. At EU level, similar oppositions are available before the EUIPO.
Active monitoring is essential because no office or registrar is required to alert you about identical or similar new filings. Our team watches new trademark filings, company registrations, domain name registrations and online uses across France, the EU and worldwide through our IPweb platform and dedicated monitoring services. Detection at filing or registration stage is the difference between low-cost opposition and costly litigation.
Unfair competition is the residual remedy under French law (based on article 1240 of the Civil Code) when a distinctive sign is not protected by a registered right but is being misused by a competitor. It allows the holder of an unregistered trade name, business sign or get-up to obtain damages and an injunction against confusion, parasitism (free-riding on reputation), denigration or commercial disorganization. It often complements registered rights in a global enforcement strategy.
