Trademark protection allowed DEKO to go global safely
With 45 years of experience, 35 of which on the international market, the Danish company DEKO has become established as one of Europe’s leading suppliers of mobile interior walls, wall systems and doors. Thanks to long-term, continuous and strategic trademark work with Awapatent, DEKO has gradually and safely been able to advance its position globally for both its trademark and its products.
”We currently sell our products in over 50 countries,” says the company’s Marketing and Business Development Director, Jimmy Rahim.
”We have continuously expanded our geographical reach; from our domestic market in Denmark to the rest of Scandinavia, then to other countries in Europe, then to Asia, focusing on China, and subsequently also to Africa. We have a strong trademark and a very good reputation on the markets worldwide.”
DEKO produces and markets a range of solid and glazed partition systems with doors. In Denmark, the company sells all its products and also has a large installation department. In Denmark, DEKO installs the products itself at private businesses and organizations and at public organizations such as hospitals and schools. In other countries, DEKO works with distributors for virtually the same end customer groups.
The company’s global growth strategy means that DEKO will continue to become established on more geographical markets in the future. In these processes, it is important for the company to proactively protect its name, its logo and its various product names in these countries as well.
”One important reason for this is that it creates reliability and security when we are out talking to potential retailers, other partners and penetrating new markets,” says Jimmy Rahim.
We have continuously expanded our geographical reach; from our domestic market in Denmark to the rest of Scandinavia, then to other countries in Europe, then to Asia, focusing on China, and subsequently also to Africa.-Jimmy Rahim
Trademark protection is important Working to protect its trademark and product names is very important to DEKO.
”This is a cornerstone of our overall business strategy,” says Jimmy Rahim.
”We have chosen to register our company name, our logo and our product trademarks in many regions and countries worldwide. The strategy is to be proactive and register in good time in the countries in which we plan to become established in the next few years.
”The international trademark work makes us stronger in strategic terms and also confers benefits on our domestic market in Denmark. Our credibility increases when we can say that we have registered our trademark in Denmark, Europe and the rest of the world as well. This enhances DEKO’s importance and strength in relation to our competitors here at home.”
Challenges involved in protecting the name DEKO faces a major challenge in its work to protect its company name as the word ’deko’ is very close to the generic word ’decoration’, which often makes the processes more difficult and protracted.
”In many countries, protecting our name is an extensive, time-consuming process,” says Jimmy Rahim.
“In a number of countries and regions, it has been difficult to obtain approval for the trademark protection. Awapatent has managed these processes very efficiently and professionally. As the name is so close to a common word, many people use our trademark fraudulently, whether consciously or unconsciously. At the same time, I would like to emphasize that there are regions and countries in which the protection is really respected.”
The company is continuously involved in various types of case in which competitors try to use DEKO’s name or its various product names by imitating them in various ways.
”All this work is handled by Awapatent. Essentially, there is global monitoring of compliance with our trademark protection. It is also very important to work methodically and carefully on this in the countries where we are not yet represented but where there are plans to become established.
”We continuously receive reports of more or less serious infringement of our trademark protection. We have to deal with these infringements in one way or another. We have been involved in some local cases in which we chose to sue those who had made the infringement. In all of these cases, Awapatent was very successful both at providing good business advice and at taking legal action with very good results,” says Jimmy Rahim. ■
Text: Mikael Sjöblom
Photo: DEKO
Published in AWA Magazine 2, 2015
About DEKO
DEKO is one of Europe’s leading suppliers of mobile interior walls and doors.
Number of employees: 400
Offices in: Denmark, China, United Kingdom, UAE and Kuala Lumpur.
www.deko.com