Counteracting greenwashing and protecting intellectual property

Responsible communication and effective protection of intellectual property (IP) are an important part of creating projects, products and services in accordance with the law and ESG principles. Growing stakeholder expectations and an increasing number of regulations require companies to be more transparent and reliable in their communication of sustainability measures. At the same time, the protection of intellectual property, due to the rise in the importance of innovation, is becoming an integral part of ESG strategies.

With our experience and wide range of services, we support clients in achieving their business goals while ensuring integrity, compliance and a positive impact on the environment and the community. Our solutions help avoid the risk of greenwashing allegations, protect innovative solutions and promote the value of products and services.

Supporting eco-innovation through the protection of intellectual property

Intellectual property (IP) in the ESG area is one way to support green innovation and encourage market participants to build a low-emissions future. Trademarks, designations of origin and certification marks play a particularly important role, giving consumers confidence that products and services meet verifiable sustainability standards. The use of intellectual property rights can help undertakings cut through the information noise and enable them to successfully bring new solutions to market. IP management plays an important role in innovation, risk minimisation and reputation building in line with sustainability principles.

We support clients in:

• registering and protecting trademarks,
• filing applications for inventions, patents and industrial designs, 
• creating an intellectual property protection strategy in the context of ESG,
• preparing agreements for the transfer or licensing of intellectual property rights important for technology protection and brand building in line with ESG,
• developing an intellectual property rights protection policy in the context of ESG strategies,
• enforcing the protection of intellectual property rights in the context of implementing ESG strategies.

Counteracting greenwashing as an element of ESG

Responsible communication and marketing must take into account increasingly stringent regulations and consumer expectations. The European Commission has taken important measures to establish specific rules against greenwashing. As part of these measures, in January 2024 the European Parliament adopted a directive empowering consumers in the green transition, and work is also underway on a directive on environmental claims (so-called Green Claims).

In Poland, the use of labels or slogans referring to “greenness” is becoming of interest to the authorities responsible for protecting consumer interests. Given that more and more companies will gradually be subject to ESG reporting requirements in the coming years, the interest of, inter alia, the President of the Competition and Consumer Protection Office in green content is set to increase.

Green marketing in compliance with legal requirements

Based on a wealth of experience, we offer optimal solutions to promote an undertaking (or its product) using green marketing, while respecting legal requirements. Among other things, we advise on how to create pro-environmental messages so that they are not considered greenwashing, greenhushing or greenwishing, and on how to conduct environmental marketing campaigns to avoid charges of, e.g. treewashing or beewashing. Our advisers keep abreast of all changes in the law (both sectoral and general) that affect green marketing, and constantly monitor the decisions of foreign consumer protection authorities.

We offer our clients:

• opinions on marketing communications, both environmental claims and those referring to other aspects of ESG,
• support in the creation of marketing campaigns to promote a green brand image,
• support in the creation of safe advertising content, correctly explaining the meaning of environmental claims and presenting the required evidence,
• workshops for marketing and legal teams.

Team:

IP

Aleksandra Auleytner | Michał Nita

Greenwashing

Jarosław Łukawski | Natalia Komala