TMR Fitzsimons Trademarks
Terms of Service
1: Information About Us
Official details:
Michael Fitzsimons t/a TMR Fitzsimons. Irish Business Name, Registered No. 468669.
TMR Fitzsimons is a Law Society of Ireland regulated law firm, No. F7586.
VAT No. 6629530 O.
Contact details:
35 Laurence Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth, A92 R264, Ireland.
Telephone: +353 (0)41 9843534.
Email: reception@tmrfitzsimons.ie; Website: www.tmrfitzsimons.ie.
Professional Qualifications:
Our trademark services are provided by registered Irish and European Trademark and Design Attorneys. Our legal advice by solicitors admitted and regulated by the Law Society of Ireland.
How we are regulated:
We are regulated by the rules governing registered Irish Trademark Agents held by the Irish Patents Office, www.ipo.gov.ie, and European Trademark Agents held by EUIPO, www.euipo.eu.
We are also regulated, as solicitors, by the Law Society of Ireland, George’s Court, George’s Lane, North King Street, Dublin 7. The rules governing solicitors, contained in the Solicitors Acts 1954 to 2015 and in legal Regulations made under those acts, can be viewed at www.lawsociety.ie.
Professional insurance:
We hold the appropriate legal level of professional insurance in place for solicitors of €1.5 million.
2: Before You Become Our Client
Conflicts of interest:
We may not be able to advise or act for you if there is a conflict of interest, or potential conflict between us, or you and another client of the firm.
We have internal procedures in place to make sure that we can identify a conflict before we accept your instructions.
We aim to give you independent advice. If, during our service to you, we become aware of a potential conflict of interest we will tell you about it. We can then agree whether it would be appropriate for us to continue to act on your behalf.
Identification Rules:
As a matter of best practice, we may seek to formally identify an individual, or a director or shareholder of any company that is instructing us in line with Law Society of Ireland client identification rules and practice notes.
You may need to give us evidence that proves your identity, like your driving licence or passport, even if we already know you. We may also need you to give us a document showing your permanent address, for example an electricity bill or a bank statement, which has been sent within the last three months.
If we are asked to act for a company, we may request to be instructed on company letterhead, signed by a director of the company and/or ask for a list of members and/or ask for confirmation that there are no other persons with a controlling interest in the company.
Money Laundering:
Under anti-money laundering regulations, when applicable, we need to be sure of your identity and where you have got your assets from before we can take on your case.
If you ask us to deal with any funds or property, you must have obtained them legally. If we become aware or suspect that these assets come from an illegal source, we must notify the Gardaí and the Revenue Commissioners without telling you, except in limited circumstances. We will immediately stop acting for you if we have to report illegal assets.
Even if you have not done anything that we must report to the authorities, we cannot transfer any assets or property funded by the proceeds of crime. This includes funds that have not been declared for tax purposes or that have been obtained by false means. In this situation, you would have to legalise your position before we could act on your behalf.
3: Cooling Off Period
If our contract for legal services was not made with you at the firm’s offices, you have the right to cancel the contract within 14 days, without giving any reasons, except where the services have already been provided.
If services have not already been provided, then the cancellation period will expire 14 days from the date, following your instructions to us, that we agreed to act for you.
You must inform us of your decision to cancel within this deadline. To meet this deadline, it is sufficient for you to send us a clear statement in writing before the cancellation period has expired. This statement can be sent by letter, delivered by hand, post, or by email. You already have our contact details.
If you wish to use a cancellation form, please request one from us. It is not obligatory to use a form.
4: Your Instructions To Us
Accurate Instructions:
It is important that you give us clear and accurate instructions from the very beginning, and that you give us any new information as it becomes known. If you do not it can lead to additional fees and expenses being incurred and we reserve the right to revise our fee.
We accept no responsibility for any wrong or incomplete instructions to us.
Delays in instructing us:
It is important that you give us instructions when they are needed. If you fail to do this, we cannot make progress. This may affect the outcome and may mean we have no choice but to stop acting for you.
Power to sign documents:
For the purpose of handling your matter, you hereby give us permission to sign documents for and on your behalf, and/or as your agent in line with your instructions to us, or to re-sign documents already signed by you. This is just for convenience. If we need greater permission, we will ask for it at the time.
5: Our Service To You
Timescales for us to take steps:
We seek to complete knock-out identical, close to identical searches within 2 days of receiving your instructions to proceed and payment.
We seek to complete similarity-clearance searches within 5 days of receiving your instructions to proceed and payment.
We will file most trademark applications within 2 days of receiving your instructions to proceed with filing.
Services Provided: Step 1 TMR Register Package Service
The service to be provided to the client (“the Service”) is:
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the completion of an identical and, in the sole discretion of TMR Fitzsimons, close to identical searches of the EUIPO and IPOI (Intellectual Property Office of Ireland) and any other trademark registers specified in the paid order by the client;
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to undertake a trademark attorney review of the search results;
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to form a reasonable but informal trademark attorney opinion on the search results;
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to give initial, general advice on an informal basis in the course of an estimated 15-25 minute phone call (this may be shorter or longer and where consultation time is longer by agreement an additional fee charge may apply) conducted by a trademark attorney, including on the basis of the opinion formed by the trademark attorney in the review of the search results; and
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without any obligation whatsoever, the trademark attorney may express an opinion on absolute grounds of refusal of a trademark, such as lack of inherent distinctiveness and descriptiveness.
6: Fees and Expenses
Types of Service, quotations and VAT:
We provide both fixed fee services and consultancy fee services.
You will receive a separate quotation for the work you ask us to undertake. This quotation may be written as a letter or an email.
All prices quoted are exclusive of VAT. Vat is currently 23%.
Step 1 TMR Register Package Service Fee:
The fee for the Step 1 TMR Register Package Service is €95 excluding VAT.
Additional Services
Additional services are subject to the client's request and will be charged at an additional fee, but otherwise, they will also be subject to these terms and conditions varied as to the Service.
Fixed Fee Services:
When we quote a fixed fee, it is inclusive of all expenses except for official Application Charges payable to the relevant trademarks office.
Official Application Charges may either be invoiced as an expense not subject to VAT, or may be included in our professional fee and subject to VAT.
Fixed fees are available only for the work actually quoted. Fixed fees do not cover any additional work that may be associated with fixed fee services provided by us.
Fixed fee services must be paid for in advance.
To minimise VAT charged to client, we separate Disbursement charges. Non-Euro Currency Disbursements are estimated and are capped, save where otherwise agreed. Non-Euro Currency Disbursements are subject to partial conversion into fee or VAT and/or foreign exchange balance write off where not fully incurred.
We are not responsible for unsuccessful applications.
Official Application Charges:
We will advise you of official Application Charges payable to official trademark offices if your application or service involves them.
Consultancy Fee Services:
Consultancy fee services may be provided as a stand-alone service or may be provided additional and related to fixed fee services, for example where an application is queried following examination by the trademarks office or is opposed by a third party.
When we provide consultancy services:-
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We will advise on the work involved and how best to undertake the work and estimate the time involved in doing so.
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We will quote an hourly fee or total fee estimate.
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The hourly fee will be exclusive of any official Charges payable to the trademarks offices directly. We will estimate these and include them as outlays which are payable in advance.
Where you have instructed us to act on your behalf in respect of consultancy work, but you later decide not to proceed for any reason you agree to discharge our fees and outlays incurred up to receipt of your instructions not to proceed.
Fees and expenses in litigation cases
In litigation cases, as in any other case or transaction, when we send you a bill for fees and expenses, you are responsible for paying that bill. This is still the position if you are successful and win your case and the judge orders the other side to pay your legal costs. Likewise, if there is a settlement of the case in your favour, which includes an agreement that the other side will pay your costs, you will still be responsible in the first instance. We will try to get as much as possible from the other side. Sometimes, however, this may not be enough to cover our bill. You are responsible for paying the rest of the money you owe us.
If we have to do extra work to recover fees from the other side to the litigation, you will incur additional fees.
In litigation cases, there is always a risk that, in addition to paying our fees and expenses, you will also have to pay the fees and expenses of the solicitors for the other party to the litigation. This might happen if, for instance, you lost the case or it was part of a settlement agreement. It is important that you fully understand this risk.
Fees and expenses for unexpected issues
In the course of a case or transaction, an unexpected issue may arise. This may mean we have to do considerable extra work on your behalf that is more than we expected when we first gave you information about our charges.
If this happens, you must pay extra fees for this work, and you may also have to pay more expenses. If this happens, we will give you new information in writing about the fees and expenses for the additional work. It is a good idea for you to budget for this possibility.
7: How we Provide our Services
Duty of care:
We agree to carry out our work for you with care and skill, in line with good professional standards.
Searches:
We will search agreed databases.
Unregistered rights can exist independently of trademark databases.
The results of searches are indicative only of possible opposition and queries. They are not and do not purport to be a guarantee that a trademark application will be successful.
Confidentiality:
We will always respect the confidentiality of your affairs. However, in the normal course of running a solicitor’s practice, we must give access to bodies with legal powers, such as:
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the Revenue Commissioners;
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the Law Society of Ireland; or
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others with Court Orders.
To manage our firm properly, we also give limited access to files for practice management purposes to others, such as:
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accountants;
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risk assessment auditors;
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IT maintenance contractors; and
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Quality control companies.
We always try to make sure that the provider of the services is reputable and that their terms of services include confidentiality obligations and data protection obligations in compliance with applicable laws.
We may store files off site in hard-copy or electronic formats. When we do, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that we and/or our service providers keep your information confidential.
Data protection:
When you employ us to handle your matter, you are giving us permission to hold information for our records.
When you give us instructions you are allowing us to keep your contact details. When the transaction is completed, if you ask us to delete them, we will do so.
Storing information in electronic format abroad:
By asking us to handle your matter, you are allowing us to store your data and other information abroad, for example, when we employ the services of electronic storage companies who use IT storage abroad.
By asking us to handle your matter, you agree that we are not responsible for any loss of, or corruption of, information by any reputable off-site electronic storage service that we use.
8: Payment
Payment in advance:
We may request a deposit towards our fees when we first start working on your behalf. We will agree this amount with you then.
Payment at intervals:
We may bill you for costs at intervals during your case or transaction. We will usually do this when cases or transactions are likely to take a long time to finish.
Payments:
Payments for fixed fee services must be paid in advance.
You must pay all our bills for consultancy services within 30 days. We will charge interest on overdue accounts at the rate of 6% each year, calculated daily.
Outlays must be discharged in advance.
We accept electronic funds transfer, credit card (in our sole discretion) cheque or bank-draft made payable to TMR Fitzsimons. If you wish to pay by cheque, we must allow 3-5 working days of the payment to clear to our account. If you wish to pay by bank draft the waiting time for final clearance may be longer.
Non-Payment Provisions:
We reserve the right not to proceed to register or to remove any registered trademark for which professional fees, outlays, VAT or Official Registry charges have not been paid.
The law allows us to keep your original file, and not to provide you with a copy, as security for any costs until we have been paid for our services. This is called the ‘Solicitor’s lien’. The original file may include a Certificate of Registration of a Trademark.
Refunds:
In bundled service packages that include clearance searches, if you decide not to proceed after receipt of the service, we shall refund you payment to us after deducting the applicable value of a stand-alone clearance search.
Refunds shall be made within 7 days.
Your Money:
We will hold any money we receive on your behalf strictly in line with the Solicitors’ Accounts Regulations.
By asking us to handle your legal case, you agree that we may hold any money you give us, or which we receive on your behalf, in any bank, which is a bank approved by the Central Bank. We will just hold your money. We do not have any additional responsibilities around the protection or investment of your money.
You also agree that we are not legally responsible for a loss or reduction in the value of the money because the bank at which the money is held becomes insolvent and does not have the money to pay back the full amount.
By asking us to handle your case or transaction, you agree that if we have given a professional promise or undertaking on your behalf, which, because of the insolvency of the bank at which we had placed the money, we cannot carry out, you will refund us in full any loss we suffer f we are forced to carry out our promise at our own expense.
9: Resolution of Complaints and Disputes
Good communication helps avoid and resolve complaints. If you do wish to make a complaint about any aspect of our service, please call us or send it in writing to us and we will review your file without delay. We will then send you a written reply within 14 days, including replies to any requests for information, advising you of any actions that we will take in relation to your case.
We have a dispute Resolution Procedure for Fee Notes that is issued with Fee Notes and is available on request at any time. This is called a section 152(3) Notice and conforms with section 152(3) of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015.
If we are not able to resolve the dispute informally, the Legal Services Regulation Authority can be contacted at complaints@lsra.ie and by phone from 10a.m to 12.30pm on Monday to Wednesday its’ Complaints Phone, 01-8592911. The LSRA website is www.lsra.ie and has complaints forms and information about making a complaint.
10: Limitation Clauses
Limit of expertise claimed:
Please note that we do not claim to have any particular expertise outside of the scope of a reasonable Irish and European registered trademark and design right attorney or solicitor’s general expertise, to include commercial law, employment law and intellectual property law.
Extent of financial liability:
Because of the nature of common law searching, common law searches are provided for guidance only and without any warranty or representation as to accuracy or completeness. We exclude any financial liability for common law searches.
Fixed fees are available only for the work actually quoted. Fixed fees do not cover any additional work that may be associated with fixed fee services provided by us.
Our liability for fixed-fee trademark and design right agency services is limited to the value of the payment received for the service, unless agreed in writing by us.
By asking us to handle your non-fixed fee case or transaction, you are agreeing that if you later feel it is necessary to take a case against us, your claim will be limited to €1.5 million or the minimum amount of professional insurance cover, which solicitors’ firms are required from time to time to have, whichever is less.
Liability to Third parties is excluded:
We expressly exclude liability to third parties.
11: Other Matters
Transferring to another solicitor
We hope to reach a successful result on your behalf. If you decide for any reason to transfer to another firm, you must pay us for any work done up to that point, together with any expenses we have paid on your behalf.
This requirement will apply even to litigation cases where we might have agreed to charge a fee only if your case was successful. If you change to another solicitor, this agreement automatically ends, and we will require payment for the work we have actually done. We will issue a bill as soon as possible. Our fees must be discharged prior to the release of the file.
Enforcement of overall agreement:
If a court decides that any part of this agreement between you and us is invalid, this will not affect the remaining terms of this agreement.
Irish courts and laws to decide disputes:
Disputes shall be governed by Irish law and within the jurisdiction of the Irish courts.
Version: 21st May, 2025
Signed: Michael Fitzsimons ta TMR Fitzsimons