HARTMANN CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
The mission of PAUL HARTMANN AG is to improve healthcare worldwide and to achieve economic success by acting responsibly and using resources sparingly.
CSC spoke with Julia Jansen, senior specialist, Non-Technical IP, who is responsible for managing trademarks (registration, defense, and renewal) and designs, as well as domain management (over 1,200 domains) and brand protection of the Hartmann Group. Hartmann Group’s trademark portfolio includes over 5,000 trademarks.
How important is an online presence for Paul Hartmann AG?
Our products are aimed at professionals, such as doctors, health care workers, and nurses—as well as end consumers. Therefore, an online presence for the HARTMANN GROUP is indispensable. Hartmann increasingly sells its products and services online and is represented in social media.
What challenges and digital threats does Paul Hartmann AG face?
We’ve already had experience with domain grabbing. One of our most important trademarks was registered in various European country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) with only a slightly modified spelling (only one "l" instead of two) and then offered to us for purchase.
Founded in 1818, PAUL HARTMANN AG, is an international manufacturer of medical and healthcare products and has around 11,000 employees worldwide today. Core business areas are wound treatment, incontinence care, risk protection in the operating room, and disinfection. The Hartmann Group includes various subsidiaries and different brands such as Dermaplast®, Sterillium®, MoliCare®, cosmos®, and more.
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DOWNLOAD THE PDFIn the area of product counterfeiting, we’ve seen an exponential increase, especially since the beginning of COVID-19. The number of counterfeits for Sterillium, one of our most important disinfection products worldwide, was hardly manageable during the pandemic.
Can you give us an insight what type of brand issues Paul Hartmann AG is facing? How were you managing incidents?
Third-party products using our name or our renowned brands is a big problem. In view of the fact that we are active in the healthcare sector and manufacture medical products, it’s particularly important that our customers and end users can rely on the quality of our products. Counterfeits can cause damage to health. We use every legal possibility—warning letters, blocking offers, civil, and even criminal proceedings—to stop counterfeits and trademark infringements.
Outside the European area, it’s particularly difficult to take action against this type of trademark infringement.
Why do you consider this being a problem to your business or clients?
We put our customers first. We constantly strive to exceed customer expectations. Eliminating counterfeit products and fake websites is therefore of utmost importance to us.
How has working with CSC changed the way you manage brand infringements, and how has it improved your overall day to day work?
We use CSC’s Domain Registration and Management service as well as Brand Protection services. CSC is our first point of contact when we or our international colleagues discover brand infringements on the internet.
Would you recommend CSC to someone else?
Absolutely! We have already achieved a great deal by working closely with CSC in the area of brand protection. In our opinion, our internet network has been properly cleaned up with the help of CSC. At the beginning of our partnership, we had tons of counterfeit products on the net and could hardly keep up with them. After more than 2.5 years of active support from CSC, things now look very different.
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