32•GOVERNANCEANDMANAGEMENT
PANDORAANNUAL REPORT2014
PROTECTINGTHE PANDORABRAND
The PANDORA brand is one of themost recognised in
the jewelleryworld, and protecting it is crucial to the
ongoing success of the PANDORAGroup.Thiswork entails
safeguarding intellectual property rights, such as trademarks
andpatents, aswell as retaining and training our people
and stopping the production and sale of counterfeit
jewellery.
Intellectual property rights and policies
PANDORA’s intellectual property rights aremainly vested
in trademarks, copyrights, patents and designs.They
are strengthened by business secrets, visually distinct
products, non-disclosure procedures and non-competition
regulations.
PANDORA’s intellectual property rights are crucial
toour business, competitive advantage and future
development.We therefore protect these intellectual
property rights using all availablemeans, including a
comprehensive global surveillance, registration and control
programme.We have a zero-tolerance policy towards
infringement of PANDORA’s intellectual property rights
on the internet and towards counterfeit products and
trademarks in general. Nodistributors, dealers or others
are permitted to register or use PANDORA’s intellectual
propertywithout prior agreement.
Patents
PANDORA’s international patent families encompass patent
rights relating to the functionality of the charmbracelet.
Patents have been grantedby themember states of the
EU, theUS, Australia, NewZealand, SouthAfrica, China,
Switzerland andNorway. In general, these patents protect
a jewellery chain (a necklace or bracelet) with a stop joint,
known as a ‘stopper’, which prevents charms from falling
off the chain.The patents alsoprotect a detachable holder,
known as a ‘keeper’. A keeper can be added to a jewellery
chain in order to divide the charms into groups and to
prevent themoveable charms from bundling at one end of
the chain. In theUS, PANDORA’s patent expires in2023
and inother jurisdictions in2024.
PANDORAfiledpatent applications related to the
PANDORA ESSENCECOLLECTION in 2013.The first
patent was granted in 2014 inAustralia andmore patents
are expected tobe granted in the first half of 2015.
Trademarks
PANDORA hasword and figurative trademarks registered
in a number of jurisdictionsworldwide, including the EU,
theUS, Australia andAsia.The trademarks are registered
in various international goods and service classes, but
are primarily in international class 14, which covers
jewellery andwatches.The trademark portfolio includes EU
registrations of the PANDORA name and crownedO logo
in various international classes, including the international
classes for jewellery, leather goods and clothing. At
the endof 2014, PANDORA’s trademark portfolio
consisted of approximately 1,000 trademark applications
and registrations. Of these, more than 100 trademark
applicationswere filed in2014.
INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL
COUNTERINGTHECOUNTERFEITERS
Our unique designs are protectedby either design
registrations or copyrights. However, the fight against
counterfeiters is anongoing battle that entails,
among other strategies, visitingmanufacturers,
wholesalers and retailerswho sell counterfeit
jewellery, and removing counterfeit PANDORA
products fromweboutlets. In2014, we succeeded
in removingmore than2,800 fake PANDORA
websites andmore than93,000pieces of counterfeit
PANDORA jewellery from auction sites.
