Geroudis is known for its extended enforcement services for the protection of intellectual property rights.

We provide protection of IPR at customs, carry out domestic enforcement, conduct surveys and market analysis as well as online monitoring. Our intelligence team is equipped and experienced with more than 15 years of services to many FORBES 100 corporations.

Geroudis has pioneered in:

• Initiated the first customs led seizures and civil claims for customs detentions of imported counterfeit goods in early 2000’s.
• Modern criminal and civil enforcement by assisting to close more than 400 counterfeiting retailing outlets over the years 2004 – 2005 with a combined yearly turnover of USD 7 million in Mauritius.
• The first civil raid with Court orders, and civil seizure of counterfeit goods.
• The highest criminal fine for a criminal prosecution against counterfeiters.
• The first Proceeds of Crime complaints in 2009, pursuant to a change in law which made counterfeiting also a possible money laundering offence.
• Customs domestics raids in with more than 10,000 products seized yearly on average.

Geroudis assists businesses in optimising ROI and output of their intangible assets and intellectual property rights by providing training, audit and compliance as well as advisory support or support for market and product development using IPR.

We assist our clients from start to finish with new product development planning, to implementation and manufacture and exploitation of their Intellectual property rights, in tailoring licences, rights, assignments and other such incentives, as well as litigation related to general protection of brands.

We provide a wide range of services to protect IP from outsiders and insiders to a company – employees, (sub) contractors, suppliers and other third parties, protection for new product development and cross border or merger or joint venture exchanges.

IP in Banking

Most banks have got it wrong in Mauritius. They have invested in IT systems due to Bank of Mauritius regulations and requirements, without a proper review of the consequences of the intellectual property rights which exist on the software – and the bottom line is generally that they are saddled with the same service provider forever. With costs overruns (which in some cases go higher than 7 Billion rupees) and this without having understood the power of copyright. What can be done?

IP in Insolvency

Liquidators and administrators may seldom consider the full impact of Intellectual property rights within the ambit of a liquidation or restructuring where the main interest may be either to keep the going concern and find a new buyer, or maximise asset value for distribution. An intellectual property overview may unlock unconsidered value for the benefit of a sale or buy out. We provide a half day VIP review of issues.

IP in the Workplace

There is a general tendency for courts in Mauritius to defend the right of an employee to move around from one employment to another and protect his or her right to find a new job. Within this general framework, it is very much possible however, to restrict the leaving employee from taking with him or her sensitive, confidential and other information from a company to another which may be a competitor. The Intellectual Property protection system at the workplace is the best-known system to prevent this and protect your intangible assets such as databases, business information, trade secretst etc, but it is not automatic. We can provide assistance in setting up a system conducive to the protection of your intangible assets.

As some companies may have found out on their own, customs only stops 10 to 15% of all imports, not because of any irregularity in their procedures, but simply because they have do not have the manpower required and the overriding priority to comply to speed of execution benchmarks set up the World Customs Organizations and the demands of a competitive Ports market in the National Interest.

This means that for most brands, already registered in Mauritius, customs protection remains incomplete, and a larger initiative is normally required to keep counterfeiting or parallel imports in check. We can assist with tailoring your enforcement campaign and implementing it. For further information, please contact us so we can pay you a visit.