Imagine you have recently formed a company and through all your hard work and contacts, you have eventually managed to not only make it profitable, but also developed a good reputation with your customers. However, because you were so busy in developing your business, you have forgotten to register your company’s logo as a trademark.
Somebody else notices the success of you new company brand and he start his own company offering the same service. Your competitor designs his corporate logo that looks very similar to yours and he begins to contact your customers with the intention of using your reputation to convince your customers to deal with him. Unfortunately, because your trademark is not protected, you receive no legal protection from such unscrupulous competitors.The above illustrates only one of the many cases on why it is so important for businesses to remember to register their company’s trademark.
The other important thing that business owners need to know is what actually makes a “good” trademark.
Trademarks are symbols, designs or any form of identification that helps people recognize a brand or a product. A trademark provides protection to the owner of the mark by ensuring the exclusive right to use it to identify goods or services, or to authorize another to use it in return for payment.
The possibilities to register a trademark are almost limitless. A trademark may be one or a combination of words, letters and numerals. They may consist of drawings, symbols, three- dimensional signs such as the shape and packaging of goods, colors or audible signs as music or even vocal sounds.
A good trademark is registrable, which means that the name or logo is not yet taken. It is not similar in the eye to another trademark and it should be distinctive. A well-known brand name can be very valuable to a company. Therefore, a trademark is eventually considered as part of an intangible asset of the company.
If you are still not convinced of the importance of registering your trademark, just think of this - if trademarks did not matter, then mega brands such Coca Cola, Nike, Facebook and Apple would not bother to register their trademarks. As a result, there would be rampant misrepresentation and the consumers would never know if they are ensured of the quality when purchasing their products.
Registration of your trademark ensure for the legal protection and exclusiveness of your company’s brand name. Unlike other forms of Intellectual Property, the protection received for trademarks is perpetual in nature. This means there is no end to the legal protection that the owner will enjoy.
The cost of registering a trademark is very small, especially compared to the risks of losing protection of your products and serves to one of your potential competitors. Therefore, we strongly advise all business owners to register your company’s logo or brand name so as to obtain full protection for it.
If you or any of your associates need any advice on trademark registration, please do not hesitate to contact us at:
EUROGAIN Group
Call: 603-9100 1050
Email: info@eurogain.com.my
Contact: Kevin Kiew, Dennis De Witt or Felicia Lee
Eurogain Consulting Group, 2011, all rights reserved
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