Growth Ventures in Portugal

We advise innovative start-ups, technological companies, and small-medium enterprises to establish themselves in Portugal and help them scale their businesses across Europe. Our team helps businesses to develop, source, and protect their technology and commercial trade. We also help businesses in their venture deals with the right terms to minimize risks.

We advise and support clients on

 

Corporate and Tax Structure to PMEs and start-ups

 

  • Planning corporate and tax structures.

  • Setting up business and corporate (e.g., MOU, etc.)

 

Intellectual Property

 

  • Developing intellectual property strategies in Portugal and the European Union.

  • Enforcement of intellectual property rights across Portugal and the European Union, including by sending demand letters.

  • Assessing the risks of obtaining registration of one or more trade marks in Portugal and the European Union.

  • Obtaining registration of one more trade marks in Portugal and outside of Portugal, including via the Madrid Protocol.

  • Managing trade mark, design, and patent portfolios.

  • Trade mark prosecution, including advising clients on ways to overcome trade mark objections and filing submissions before Portugal’s Trade Mark Office and the European Union Intellectual Property Office.

  • Assigning intellectual property rights, including trade mark, invention, patent and software assignment.

  • Licensing of intellectual property rights, including software licensing and trade mark licensing.

  • Obtaining registration of copyright in Portugal.

  • Preparing and reviewing Non-Disclosure Agreements.

  • Domain name disputes before the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre.

 

Data and technology

 

  • Developing data protection strategies to meet European law requirements.

  • Preparing and reviewing privacy policies, terms of use, and cookies notice.

  • Preparing cybersecurity legal frameworks.

  • Use of social media and search engine optimization.

  • IT service agreements (e.g., IT infrastructure management).

 

Commercial Law

 

  • Preparing and reviewing commercial agreements, including supply and distribution agreements, sale of goods agreements, agency agreements, and consultancy agreements.

  • Negotiating commercial agreements.

 

Corporate Finance to PMEs and start-ups

 

  • Investment rounds for early-stage startups (e.g., business angels’ investments, venture capital investments, loans and credit facilities).

  • Legal due diligence.

  • Mergers and acquisitions.

Trade Marks

  • A trade mark is the sign that you use in commerce to distinguish your products and services from those offered by your competitors. It also tells consumers that the products and/or services are being offered by you.

  • Trade marks can be in the form of words, letters, numbers, colours or shapes (including the shape of products), or a combination of those.

  • No, registration of your company name and trade mark have different purposes. Registration of your company name is part of the process of registering your company, whilst registering your trade mark means registering the sign you use in commerce to identify the products and/or services offered by your business.

  • Registration of your trade mark will grant you exclusive rights to use your trade mark for the goods and/or services it is registered.

    Registration can also bring value to your trade mark, meaning it can be an attractive asset that you can license to others for a fee.

    Also, by being the exclusive owner it means you can to stop others from using identical or similar trade marks for products and/or services either identical or closely related to yours (e.g., registration of your trade mark can be a good alternative if you are not successful in obtaining patent protection for your product).

  • The short answer is no. Your trade mark must be distinctive (i.e., be able to distinguish your products and/or services from your competitors) and not be merely descriptive of your products and/or services.

  • You can register your trade mark with an Intellectual Property Office located in the country or region you wish to register it.

    If you wish to register your trade mark in Portugal, you can seek registration before Portugal’s Trade Mark Office (i.e., Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial) and if you wish to register it across the European Union you can seek registration before the European Union Intellectual Property Office.

  • Yes! By filing a trade mark application in one country (“base application”) you can have a period of six months to seek registration in other countries and your trade mark will have the same filing date as the base application in those countries.

  • Yes, in most cases it is best to conduct trade mark searches to assess the risks of you seeking registration of your trade mark. Trade mark searches can identify possible conflicting trade marks and help you on your trade mark strategy.

  • Trade mark registrations last for 10 years renewable indefinitely.

  • Until you obtain registration of your trade mark you should use ™. This indicates that you are using your trade mark as a trade mark, although it is not yet registered.

    After you obtain registration of your trade mark, you can use ® next to it. This indicates your trade mark is registered.

Data Protection
in the EU

  • The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the law of the European Union on personal data protection. Its purpose is to give more control to people on how their personal data is used. It is arguably one of the strictest sets of laws in the world regarding data protection.

  • Personal data is any information that can identify a person, such as names, identification numbers, location data, or online identifiers.

  • Your business will have to comply with the GDPR if it is based in the EU, even if you process personal data outside of the EU (e.g., your business is based in Portugal and the data you collect is stored with an IT service provider in Malaysia).

  • Processing is broadly defined as a set of operations that process personal data, including, but not limited to, collecting, recording, organizing, structuring, and storing personal data.

  • Even if your business is based outside of the EU, it may be subject to the GDPR. The GDPR provides that businesses outside the EU may be subject to the GDPR if they (1) offer goods and services to people who live in the EU; or (2) monitor the behavior of people in the EU.

    This means, for example, that if you have an Australian business and offer products priced in Euros, it may be understood you offer your products to those who live in the EU and the GDPR would apply to you; or if your Australian website tracks the behaviour of users from the EU, then the GDPR may also apply to you.

  • Yes. The GDPR sets some principles, these being that you process personal data (a) lawfully, fairly, and in a transparent way; (b) for legitimate, specific, and explicit purposes; (c) to the extent necessary for the purpose it is being processed; (d) accurately; (e) for the time period that is necessary to meet the purpose for which it is being processed.

    You must also be able to demonstrate that you comply with the above principles.

  • You should consider conducting an assessment of your business to determine: (a) who within your business controls personal data; (b) where your business stores personal data; (c) how is the personal data secured. After this assessment, it is likely to be easier for you to determine measures you can adopt within your business to comply with the GDPR.

Trade Secrets

  • Your business may have trade secrets if they: (a) are not generally known among or readily accessible within a group of persons who would normally deal with such information; (b) have commercial value, and (c) have been subject to reasonable measures to keep them secret.

  • Trade secrets consist of a wide range of secret information you can hold, such as computer software, algorithms, formula, business plans and strategies, a list of your clients, a list of your suppliers and distributors and etc.

  • Short answer is no. Different from intellectual property rights, such as patents, designs, and trade marks, trade secrets are not registrable rights.

  • As the holder of trade secrets, you need to adopt reasonable measures to keep them secret. These measures include implementing an IT security system, limiting access to buildings where your trade secrets are stored, having non-disclosure agreements with your business partners, having confidentiality and non-compete obligations in the agreements of your employees. These are just some of the examples.

  • In addition to having a competitive edge over your competitors, protection over your trade secrets will in general terms last as long as you keep them secret. This is different from other intellectual property rights, such as patents which are only protected for a period of 20 years.

Talk to one of our Lawyers

Are you determined Portugal is the right choice for you but haven’t yet figured out which legal solution is best suited for your particular situation, and you are bubbling with questions?

Then a 50-minutes consultation with one of our lawyers is what you are looking for.