Imagine your business with a brand you’re proud of. You’ve put your blood and sweat in expanding that business on the back of that brand. You still continue to market it online. And then one day, it happens, you receive a notice from someone saying that you’ve been using their trademark.
Just imagine how devastative it would be. All your efforts that you’ve put in building your business can be destroyed within a day. That’s the point at which you might realize the importance of trademark registration.
What is Trademark Registration?
Trademark registration is the process of registering your trademark under your name and entering that ownership details in the trademark registry. To put in simple terms, it’s the process of becoming a legal owner of a registered trademark.
What is the process of trademark registration?
The process of registering a trademark is pretty straightforward:
- Conduct a trademark name search to see if your trademark is unique.
- File the application of trademark registration.
- Wait for the examination report of your trademark application.
- Wait while your trademark application and trademark is published in the trademark journal.
- Get the certificate of trademark registration marking your successful completion of trademark registration online.
The difference between the process of trademark registration is because of different types of trademarks:
- To trademark a name, you don’t require a specific document to show the trademark, you can just type it.
- to trademark a logo, you need to provide and IMG file and give a picture description of the trademark.
Additionally, a logo trademark goes through Vienna codification before being examined by the trademark examiner.
What are the benefits of trademark registration?
You don’t go through the pains of brand name search, filing the trademark application and waiting for months on end to get trademark registered for nothing. There are definite benefits of doing that and they are as follows:
- A trademark is a valuable asset: Once you register a trademark, it becomes an asset for your business. It means that you can now sell it for money, if you so wish to do so.
- trademark registration protects your brand: When you register your trademark, you become its legal owner. As it’s legal owner, you can file case against anyone who tries to use your trademark without your permission.
- It makes your brand unique: If you use a brand name and not register it, you can’t claim it to be your own if someone else copies it. Thus, to own your trademark, and make it unique, you should get trademark registration.
- It allows you to communicate your brand: Like you identify someone by calling out their name, people would identify your product by calling out your trademark. It’s how you can communicate with your customers to engage with them.
- You can own your trademark for eternity: Once a trademark is registered, it can belong to your forever, provided that you renew your trademark registration. Unlike the long process of trademark registration, trademark renewal is a piece of cake.
Conclusion
Registering a trademark makes you it’s legal owner. But the other reasons that you should care about trademark registration consist of:
- Being able to communicate your brand better.
- Making your brand unique
- Protecting your ownership of your trademark,
- and most importantly, having access to an intellectual property with actual monetary value.
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