Trade Marks
A trade mark is your commercial identity. A trade mark distinguishes you from your competitors and generates repeat business. Your trade mark is how customers recognise you and choose to return to you.
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but it will generally hurt your bottom line. Preventing copycats from using your trade mark becomes far easier and cheaper if your mark is registered.
- → Do you have a mature business?
- → Are you expanding into new markets?
- → What about business names and domain names?
Do you have a mature business?
Trade mark registration is important at all stages in the life cycle of a business or product. Even well established trade marks should be registered.
The owner of a registered trade mark has the exclusive right to use the trade mark in relation to the registered goods or services, and can prevent others from using the trade mark, or one that is deceptively similar, on the registered goods and services or similar goods and services. In many countries, registration also allows you to have the Customs Service seize infringing goods as they enter (or, in some cases, leave) the country.
Registering trade marks in your consumer markets is very important, but you should also consider the countries in which you source your goods. Talk to WADESON about strategies to protect your trade marks locally and overseas.
Are you expanding into new markets?
Whether you are extending your brand into new product or service lines, expanding overseas into new territories or you are a brand new start up, you should factor trade marks into your plans.
Checking early in the development cycle that you have freedom to operate is important. Creating new brands is exciting. All too often, just before launch, someone asks ‘did we check this with legal?’, only to find that the new brand cannot proceed because an important brand element, the trade mark, would infringe a registered trade mark.
Involving WADESON at an early stage can save your business from spending time and money developing a brand that you cannot use.
Talk to us about how we can make this an easy streamlined process for you.
What about business names and domain names?
Business names, domain names and trade marks have different purposes and provide different rights.
The registration of a business name protects the general public, not you.
The public can use the business names register to find out who really owns and runs the business. Nobody owns their domain name; they own a license to it as an address, just like a PO Box at the post office. Only a trade mark provides the owner with the right to stop others using similar marks.
The registration of business names, domain names and trade marks occurs on separate and unrelated registers that are not cross-checked against each other. It’s advisable to check all three registers before proceeding with a new name. WADESON can assist you with these checks.