Why Register your Trade Mark?
Are you wondering whether you should register your trade mark? Is someone copying your trade mark? Need trade mark information for start ups?
The Start-Up Scenario
Imagine this scenario. You left the world of full-time employment to start up your own company and fulfil your entrepreneurial ambitions. You’re selling a product with a brand name that you have designed and created yourself, and business is booming.
Imagine that you have racked your brains, asked all your customers, and purchased the domain names for the new brand you have created. Six months after decorating your shop and designing all your packaging you ‘look up’ on Google or Amazon and find that another company is selling a product nearly identical to yours.
Your brand name is not registered as a trade mark, the goods have no design right protection, and you do not have a trust fund to pay the fees that your lawyer is demanding.
What Do You Do?
Call Trade Mark Associates. We will undertake a free ‘knock-out’ search and provide straightforward and effective advice that will help you to protect your brand in a business efficient way.
The first things that we would consider are that you register your brand as a registered trade mark. It may be too late to use the new trade mark against the imitator, but it will help you in the future. Trade mark application costs can be found on our pricing page
If the design was marketed to the public less than twelve months ago, the next thing to do is register the design as a “registered design”.
Trade Marks: The Goodwill in your Business
The next step is gather information about your business’s ‘goodwill’. The questions to ask are:
- When did you start using your name in business?
- Where is the business situated?
- Who are your customers?
- How do you advertise and promote your business (where, what and when?)
- Have you invoices showing sales of your products?
- What is your turnover?
- Have you any early drawings or prototypes of the product that you are selling?
- What is it about the copied product that is similar to your product?
- Have you purchased a copy of the infringing product from the copyist (if so, keep the receipt and/or sample)?
- How is this business is damaging your business?
At the same time, you will need to gather information about what the “new comer” or imitator is doing:
- How is s/he using your brand?
- Who is s/he selling to?
- Where is s/he selling?
- How is s/he advertising and what other promotions is s/he using?
For further information about our fixed price registration service see About Us. Read our latest posts on Trade Mark News.
21 Frequently Asked Questions about Trade Mark Registration
You may be interested in looking at the answers to the frequently asked questions about trade mark registration at this link. We hope this page helps you to understand more about the reasons for registering a trade mark, and the potential challenges.
The friendly expert team at Trade Mark Associates will give you free initial advice on whether and how to register your trade mark. They will explain the alternatives to you and, if you want, will act on your behalf (for a fixed price). Trade Mark Associates’ experts will aim to ensure that your brand is not damaged any further, that the infringing copies are destroyed, and that you receive compensation from the imitator. Meet the team.
To get in touch, visit the Contact Us page.
Your brand is safe with Trade Mark Associates.