FAQ

There is no requirement for registration under Israeli copyright law. The only requirement is originality. In order to prove rights, one must prove that they were the original authors of the work. It is important to keep records of early versions of the work so that the author will have proof of its copyright by virtue of being the original creator.

Fair use is an exception to copyright infringement. Under Israeli copyright law, fair use includes uses for purposes such as private study, research, criticism, reviews, news reporting, quotations, and instruction and examination by an educational institution. In addition whether use  falls under the scope of ‘fairness’ is determined with regard to the (1) purpose and nature of the use, (2) nature of the work used, (3) qualitative and quantitative aspects of the work’s use, and (4) impact of the use on the work’s value and potential market

Ideas are not protected under Israeli copyright law. Only an expression of the idea in tangible form may enjoy copyright.

Under Israeli copyright law, the copyright holder is entitled up to 100,000 Israeli new shekels in compensation without proof of damages for each infringement.

In order to prove copyright infringement, it is necessary to show that the work was accessible and that the degree of similarity between the original work and the accused work is high enough to provide circumstantial evidence that the work was indeed copied.

Copyright infringement occurs when one’s original work is copied by another. It is not necessary that the entire work be copied, and copyright infringement would be sustained if an essential part of an original work is used without permission. An essential part of the work relates not only to quantity but also to quality. For example, the chorus of a song may be considered an essential part of the work and therefore its use would infringe copyright despite it not being the longest part of the song.

Online brand protection is the protection of brand owner’s assets in the digital world, anywhere, and at any time. It involves the use of cutting-edge technology, extensive IP legal experience, and unique eCommerce know-how, to deliver ultimate results.

Effective online brand protection provides several solutions, designed to eliminate threats across multiple digital channels. These include:, anti-piracy, prevention of trademark abuse, patent and design infringements, or combating gray marketing activities.

With the rapid growth of eCommerce and online sales becoming increasingly dominant, online threats grow respectively, making online brand protection crucial for safeguarding a brand’s assets, and online sales.

Protecting your brand will require taking several actions:

1. Registering your IP rights – logo, trademarks, patents, designs and copyrights.
2. Getting the full picture – in order to eliminate threats, one first needs to understand what and where these threats are endangering the brand and assets. Tracking digital threats requires the use of advanced technology.
3. Protect – track-down threats across multiple digital channels worldwide and prevent them from selling their products. To reach this mammoth goal, brand owners require an effective online brand protection service to defend their assets online.

All businesses and brand owners, regardless of their size, origin, and product catalogue, require online brand protection.

The rise of eCommerce has made digital protection a necessity for literally all brands, across all industries.

Successful online brand protection brings real added-value to brand owners and is a must-have in the eCommerce age. Key advantages include:

• Protection of IP rights – ensuring that you are the only one capitalizing from your IP assets.
• Reduced counterfeit production – eliminating the sales of counterfeit goods and blocking brand abuse activity reduces counterfeiters’ motivation to produce fake products.
• Increased sales – eliminating illegal sales increases the sales of authentic goods.
• Reduced marketing costs – marketing costs rise when counterfeiters bid up paid advertising and promote their illegal products over legitimate search engine optimization results of authentic goods (SEO).
• Encourage investments – having a strong and well protected brand will add to investors’ safety, and ultimately to your brand’s value.
• Boost your growth – with an effective brand protection service in place, brand owners have more time and resources to focus on growth of their business.
• Protect your brand’s reputation – making end-consumers feel safe to purchase your products, knowing they are buying high-quality authentic goods, results in better brand reputation, and promotes additional sales.

Yes, a trademark licensee must be recorded in the Israeli Trademark Register in order for the license to be valid and for the use of the mark by the licensee to accrue to the registered owner.  This is the case even if the licensor and the licensee are affiliated companies.

The Office offers identical searches (for identical marks, covering all classes), as well as similarity searches (in each class separately). In addition, the Office offers a search by owner’s name (covering all classes). 
Searches may also be conducted in the online computerized database of the Israeli Trademark Office by any person. 

A trademark registration does not automatically lapse due to non-use, and no declaration of use is ever required upon official initiative.  However, if a registered trademark is not used for a consecutive period of three years, or if there was no genuine intent to use it, the registration becomes vulnerable to cancellation on the grounds of non-use, upon request by an interested third party.

Formality issues, classification and wording of the goods and services, inherent registrability (absolute grounds) and prior rights (registered or not; relative grounds).

Marking is not compulsory.  Trademarks may be marked, at will, with the TM symbol (^TM), regardless of whether they are registered or not.  Additionally, registered marks may be marked with ®.  Please note, however, that marking of non-registered trademarks with ® is a criminal felony.

These include letters, numerals, words, devices or other symbols or combinations thereof, whether two-dimensional or three-dimensional, including labels, shapes of products and packaging, color shades and sounds.

The Israeli Patents Law 5727–1967 states that an invention is deemed new if it was not published, in Israel or abroad, before the application date. Such publication may be by written, visual, audible or any other description, or by exploitation or exhibition. A prior publication is considered as such if it is in a manner that enables a person skilled in the art to make it based on the publication description.

Accordingly, not every hint relating to the invention is considered as prior publication. However, it is highly recommended to consider carefully before exposing the invention in order to avoid such disclosure from being considered as publication.

The numbers appearing as part of the titles of Israeli Legislation (such as 5727 in the Patents Law, 5727-1967), reflect the Jewish calendar year in which the law was enacted.  The Gregorian calendar is also noted in the title of the law.

In Israel, a patent attorney is not necessarily a lawyer.  

Generally, a patent attorney is a person who graduated from an institution of higher education in one of the following fields:  engineering, chemistry, physics, biology, pharmaceutical science, or computer science.  However, a patent attorney’s education in the field of law is limited mainly to the Patents Law and other Intellectual Property related laws, which he studies practically during his qualifying service period in work and for which he is examined before being granted a license.  For further details on eligibility for registration in the Register of Patent Attorneys, please see previous question in this site.

A patent attorney is permitted to work in Israel for pay in respect of patents, designs and trademark applications and prepare any document which is to be filed to the Registrar, to the Patent Office, or to an authority for the protection of industrial property in another country, and to represent clients and handle proceedings before the Registrar or the Patent Office.  In addition, a patent attorney may have, subject to permission of the Court, the right to argue before the Court on behalf of a party in proceedings under the Patents Law 5727-1967, in all matters relating to an invention or a patent which is not a point of law, and provided that the advocate of the same party is present at that time.

An advocate, on the other hand, is a member of the Israel bar association, and as such has an exclusive right to deal with legal proceedings, give opinions regarding matters of law and represent before a court of law and before official authorities, such as the Patent, Trademarks, and Design office.  Therefore, an advocate may perform all the same services as a patent attorney.  In addition, an advocate may handle any legal proceeding, including litigation relating to Intellectual Property and Intellectual Property related agreements.  Nonetheless, in legal proceedings relating to patents, an advocate would normally cooperate with a patent attorney who is knowledgeable in the technological field of the invention and its details.

RCG offers its clients the best of both worlds.  The group includes both patent attorneys and advocates who work in tandem. 

A patent attorney in Israel is a person registered in the Register of Patent Attorneys who holds a patent attorney’s license.
In order to receive an Israeli patent attorney’s license, a person needs to be an Israeli resident, be registered as an engineer in the Register of Engineers and Architects under the Engineers and Architects Law 5718-1958, or have graduated from an institution of higher education in one of the following professions: engineering, chemistry, physics, biology, pharmaceutical science, or computer science.  In addition, he needs to have performed qualifying service in Israel during not less than two years in the office of an experienced patent attorney (or in the patent department of an industrial enterprise), and he is required to pass the Bar exams (or be exempted therefrom) in order to receive the license.  Thereafter, the patent attorney needs to pay an annual fee in order to maintain the validity of his license.

In Israel, a patent is an asset which can be assigned both by agreement and by act of law (for example as part of an inheritance).

Assignment of patent rights (or in an invention) has to be done in writing, and will have no effect on any third party, unless it is registered in the Patents Register accordingly, as prescribed by law.
A patentee or an owner of a patent application may also grant a license to exercise the invention, and such a license will have no effect on any third party unless registered in the Patents Registrar, as prescribed by Israeli law.

Yes, a patent may be placed under a charge. A patentee may use the patent or any revenue therefrom or both as a guarantee and the charge must be drafted in a written document.

According to Section 19 of the Patents Law, 5727-1967, a charge on a patent shall have no effect with regard to any other creditor or the patent holder or to a liquidator or trustee in bankruptcy of the patent holder, unless it was registered in the Register within twenty-one days after the day on which it is created, and it is subject to any other right in the patent granted before the charge was created and duly registered under this law. However, if the patent is part of assets charged with a floating charge by a corporation, the floating charge need not be registered according to said section.

It is possible to request a deferment of the publication of the application, for a period not exceeding 6 months from the application filing date at the time of filing or immediately afterward. Otherwise, the design application as filed is published shortly after its filing on the Patent Office website.

On-line search is available to the public. The information available includes registered designs (here) and also design applications that were filed as of August 7, 2018 (here).

Unregistered design protection comes into effect automatically for a period of 3 years from the date of public disclosure of the design in or outside Israel, provided that the design is new and of individual character and that it was offered for sale or distributed to the public in Israel in a commercial manner, including online, by the design owner or on its behalf, within 6 months of its public disclosure. It is important to note that there is a significant distinction in the scope of protection and the criteria for infringement between registered and unregistered designs.

• An original Power of Attorney signed (in blue ink) by an authorized officer of the applicant company, specifying his/her name and title.
• Representations (as detailed below).

• A certified copy of the priority document or DAS code for retrieval (where priority is claimed) must be presented either with the documents when filed or within two months from the date when the priority was claimed (extendable subject to payment of extension fees).

Photographs, line drawings or computer-illustrated images clearly representing the design. The representations should be of high quality, and their number should be sufficient to show the entire design from different views. Line drawings with shading may be accepted. Unclaimed parts of the design may be shown in dashed lines, blurring, coloring, or lightening.

A Registered Design is initially valid for a period of five years from the filing date of the application, and can be renewed four times in terms of five years, up to a total of 25 years.