A registered trademark for your products will provide additional protection against imitators and counterfeiters, and helps ensure that your product name remains associated with your company and your company alone. If your company creates products with those types of distinctive names, then it’s a good idea for you to look into registering trademarks for them. Think of cosmetics with original, unique names for certain hues, or the different ways beverage companies will refer to generic drinks like cola or lemon-lime soda. Often, these names will meet the qualifications for strong trademarks: they aren’t generic or descriptive of the product, but instead refer to it in a more abstract or unrelated way. Many companies choose to create original, distinctive names for their products in order to provide a second layer of identity. If it’s always a good idea to register the name of your company, does the same answer go for product names? In most cases, yes. The lost time and resources involved in resolving trademark conflicts when you have an unregistered mark far outweigh any potential brand equity or other perceived reasons not to change your name to one that would be easier to register. Even if you’ve been operating under, or considering, a name at the weaker end of the trademark strength spectrum (descriptive or generic), it’s frequently a better idea to choose a different, stronger name to trademark, rather than relying on the weak provisions affording minimal protection to unregistered trademarks. It’s difficult to conceive of a case where a business would not want to register a trademark for their name. The risk of confusion runs high in most cases, and no company can afford to lose profits when potential customers end up doing business with another merchant when they intended to do business with you. It’s the “face” of your company, the first touchpoint for most customers, and the primary way in which you’ll be identified. In short, you should always register a trademark for the name of your business. Let’s start with the easier question: registering a trademark for your company name. As you read on, you’ll learn when it benefits you to register each. More specifically, the question arises of when to register a company name and when to register a product name trademark. Frequently, the issue of what types of marks can and should be registered arises, especially in the retail realm. The question of when to register certain marks, however, is not as clear as one might think, even in light of all of these benefits. “The name of your cleaning service can be a trademark, but so can the name of your cleaning spray” The benefits of a registered trademark are clear: greater confidence that you aren’t infringing on an existing mark, greater confidence in the strength and validity of your mark, protection against infringement, public notice of your registration, and legal grounds for trademark enforcement, to name a few.
#Do i need to trademark my business name and product name free
Contact us today for a free consultation with a trademark attorney. We work with clients from all 50 states and 30+ countries around the world. Gerben IP has registered over 7,300 trademarks since opening our doors in 2008. Do you need assistance in a trademark matter?
0 kommentar(er)
