Branding allows you to get the attention of prospective customers and so attempts must be taken to secure them. Nonetheless, there are cases where organizations have some trouble protecting their brand name to discourage unauthorized use.
The first move is to obtain a brand name by initially making a company registration and later on choosing to secure the mark. A registered name is the legal identity of the business and a trademark is the one that covers any particular and exclusive feature of the business identity. If a corporation licenses the trademark, it legally guarantees its protection by prohibiting a third-party misuse. Again, remember to pick a non-existing name for your business as no two business names can be similar on paper.
Almost all businesses use the name of the company to connect directly with their clients. In these situations, the name of the client is not suggested to be labeled. But if the name and brand name of the company is the same, e.g., New Balance, Inc. makes a lot of sense. A startup can monitor or avoid the unauthorized use of its brand in many ways by staying vigilant and conducting thorough research before registering the brand name.
Below are a few steps you can take as a business to secure your brand name by exploiting intellectual property rights.
Make copyright for everything you want to use for branding
One solution to safeguard the logo is by leveraging the copyright. It allows business owners legally to prohibit the development, selling, reuse, or even duplication of derivatives by other firms. The licensed owner needs permission for every other business to use such signs. By granting or authorizing the mark to any 3rd party, the business owner can profit from it. The goal is only to cover a few terms on the subject and not all ideas.
Please be aware that copyright does not include any modification of original work, or any other term, slogans and trade names. The owners of copyright tend to mark the essential aspects of all work to preserve their identity. However, big businesses often mark certain characters or places of work with the preference of having copyright to ensure reliable, additional protection, such as the apple logo with a bite taken out of it.
Cover all aspects of intellectual property with trademark
Generally speaking, you can mark your company name when you refer it explicitly to your customers while advertising. When you do not directly engage with your customers with your company name, you possibly cannot do so as you don’t link your name to the brand and its attributes. When your company name is a big part of marketing, you must consider marking it. Here are ways to ensure brand protection using trademark registration as a way to connect.
Consider your tagline
While the phrase cannot be marked or the words ordered, the tagline can be marked. The slogan must be recognizable and creative to be labeled legally. This must be enough to add to the company’s secondary value. For example, Philip’s “Sense and Simplicity” is iconic and represents the brand’s fundamental philosophy to make sense of technology for a layman and even simplify it. It’s a simple slogan now. However, it would not be necessary for an environmental group to mark the term ‘Go Green’ as it too vague and generic. Therefore, you should look to add an aesthetic appeal to your slogan that binds your bran intuitively.
Registering your brand logo
Ask your logo from a reputable service provider to ensure it is secure and to discourage other products, even your rivals, from using it.
Claim the Proof of Prior Use
You’d not want to get your business in any lawsuit for using any existing mark. It is possible that you can use an existing trademark and you are unaware of it. Here is when you few companies have issued claims for pre-use, especially that is evident in Manikchand vs. Malikchand, where the former tried to sue latter and yet ended up losing the case because Malikchand was able to demonstrate the prior use.
In connection with the brand mark, the applicant will need to provide proof of prior usage to show the first use of the trademark. That is because the first product brand is more likely to use the logo exclusively. If the brand name is not currently used, it is appropriate to use the word ‘proposed to be used.’
Here are some of the prods you can use to support the prior-use claim?
• Official certificates of identification not available.
• Online presence in media like blogs and other brand name services/product outlets.
• Each year, during the use of the symbol invoices and bills.
• Publicity info, such as brochures, posters, newsletters, newspaper ads, etc.
• TV, radio commercials, if any, promotional audio-visual products.
If you can present the proof of prior use and the same is confirmed, the brand name and the evidence of the date the brand name is used for financial transactions can also be included in the documents.
Protecting your brand is inevitable for ensuring business success. Losing out on brand identity due to infringement can cause irreversible loss partly because the imitation available in the market does not comply with the quality you offer.
Bottomline
Intellectual property rights should be covered by companies aiming to create a brand and ha brand out of their existence. This ensures that the creators and citizens involved are free from violations of intellectual property. In a highly competitive market, the easiest and only way to create a viable and reliable differentiator is to protect the IPR and ensure strengthening your brand presence in the market.
