MANDEL-ASSOCIES has been providing legal advice for more than forty years to international investors setting up their business or representative offices in France.
The firm has assisted numerous clients before the French Ministry of Economy and Finances and the Ministry of Industry at the time of exchange control regulations regarding investments and divestitures.
MANDEL-ASSOCIES may assist its clients at present in a variety of fields: company incorporation, acquisitions and due diligences. It advises them on setting up the appropriate structures: subsidiaries, joint ventures, holding companies, representative offices.
It assumes responsibility for all other legal issues involved in the client’s projects: negotiating leases, drafting all necessary agreements, filing applications to French Government, departments and agencies or Consulates whenever necessary in relation to foreign executives permits.
It also provides ongoing legal services once such projects have materialized, acting as secretary for shareholders and board meetings and providing permanent advice in the fields of corporate and labor law.
Commercial law and Distribution law
Our firm has developed strong expertise in the creation and monitoring of various forms of integrated distribution network, such as selective and/or exclusive distribution networks or franchise networks.
Our firm is also specialized in drafting commercial agency agreements.
The firm assists clients both with the drafting of agreements and in case of legal disputes.
In the area of trade practices, our firm advises suppliers of goods and services, but also resellers, in the drafting of their general terms and conditions of sale, their commercial co-operation agreements and/or their general terms and conditions of purchase.
Our firm is also active in litigation cases involving the termination of commercial relationships.
We also provide clients with legal advice in the areas of advertising, consumer law and competition law.
Our firm provides clients with sound legal advice based on extensive experience in labor relations: individual employment agreements, employment termination, working hours regulations, status of labor organizations and personnel delegates among others.
Our firm assists also its foreign clients in connection with immigration regulations and entry of CEO and senior and upper level management personnel (and their families) into France.
All our lawyers are admitted to appear before the French specialized labor Courts (“juridictions prud’homales”).
As French intellectual property lawyers, we dedicate our work to litigation involving all kind of intellectual property rights, especially patents, trademarks, designs, copyright and geographical indications.
As we are members of the Paris Bar, we regularly represent clients before the Court of First Instance of Paris which has exclusive jurisdiction for French patent infringement cases, whatever the place of the defendant is located, and for European Union trademark and Community design’s litigation when the defendant is a French resident or a French company.
Whether it’s defending and enforcing your rights, we can help you with IP litigation, cybersquatting and domain name litigation, false advertising, unfair competition, custom seizures, trademark opposition, or alternative dispute resolutions relating to intellectual property.
Our firm also regularly collaborates with French and other European Customs and can work with its clients to develop strategies to address the counterfeit issues encountered by various IP holders. In this connection, our firm is used to submit national or Union applications for actions before the French Customs.
Indeed, the customs authorities are both competent and efficient to enforce intellectual property rights with regard to goods, which, in accordance with Union customs legislation, are liable to customs supervision or customs control, and to carry out adequate controls on such goods with a view to preventing operations in breach of intellectual property rights laws. Enforcing intellectual property rights at the border, where the goods are under customs supervision or customs control, is in practice an efficient way to quickly and effectively provide legal protection to IP right-holders.
Our firm has also developed its services regarding registrations and prosecutions of French and European Union trademarks and designs. In such connection, MANDEL-ASSOCIES may rely on the Correspondent Office it has in Alicante, Spain, seat of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), when it comes to filing of trademarks and/or designs and the defense to opposition and cancellation proceedings before EUIPO.
Our expertise addresses every aspect of trademark strategy, not only trademark prosecution but also brand clearance advice and licensing arrangements and technology transfers to maximize your IP assets.
Finally, we have expertise on geographical indications. We advise groups of wine, spirit or food producers for the protection and registration of GIs before the French Authorities or the European Commission and in case of disputes between GIs and trademarks, etc.
We work in the new technologies sector for various types of companies: e-commerce companies, web designers, internet platforms, actors in the high-tech sector.
We advice our clients on several legal issues such as the protection of their IP rights on internet, online advertising, protection and transfer of personal data, drafting of general conditions of sale/use, consumer rights, electronic payments, e-reputation, etc.
We are also active in the crowdfunding industry. We can advise platforms, investors and entrepreneurs on issues relating to company formation, fund formation, compliance under the French regulations, consumer securities provisions, private financings, investment properties, specialized terms and conditions for crowdfunding portals and more.