5Common Mistakes To Avoid In Choosing A Trademark

So, you’ve picked your new trademark and business name and have already paid to have marketing materials. But, give a stop-is that name you picked is protectable?

When registering a business, numerous business organizations fail to maximize their brand value by making simple mistakes which that compromise marks in a complete unique manner.

Without a fairly strong and well-versed knowledge of intellectual property (IP) law, several businesses often fall into the trap of being not going-through the full requirements or scope of the law, and of the potential repercussions of such a lack of knowledge.

However, keeping in contact with a lawyer or an IP expert to ask their advice is the most flexible way of ensuring that your brand gets its higher potential. Well, this article will outline five common mistakes made by businesses when registering their trademark and what is the best method to avoid them.

New firms, products and services come up every day and all of them are being branded by their creators. Choosing a name and a logo is one of the most significant parts of building a brand.

The economy on global basis has made the marketplace increasingly crowded. The question here comes then, will we ever be running out of naming options? Let’s take an example: the Canadian mobile and service provider Orange got its name from the famous fruit and color. They can save themselves as the only telecommunications provider with the name by trademarking this name. This is however only one of many examples of how to generate different trademarks.

Unluckily, as long as you wait the more you risk losing the mark you love to someone else. When you can prove you were first in your area, common law rights can only protect usage. And that’s not always easy. If you wait until after you’ve dropped a proper amount of money on design, branding, manufacturing and promotion, you might have to transform everything.

Omissions or Mistakes on the Application

It is not that difficult to make omissions and mistakes during the registration method without the watchful eye of a lawyer or an IP expert. Business organizations are advised, if they are not willing to contact a professional, to take the time and care to ensure that the registration process is carried out properly. There are several technical aspects of IP law and the registration of a mark that cannot be identified by a mere perusal of the application document. A brand can be registered in several ways, the major common of which are word marks- involving purely of words, figurative spots- considering of an image or logo or combined marks-a combination of the previous two. The major common omission is the business not selecting the correct way to register their brand, with the result that it will not have the intended different value. Let’s take an example: registering a brand as a combined mark, when the intention was to register it merely as a word will define that only the combination is protected-not importantly the personal components (however, the original level of protection will rely upon the facts of every scenario.

This slip up, thus having no direct effect on the mark itself can potentially significantly diminish the level of protection it receives.

Do not Become a COPYCAT

Trademark copycatting are done unintentionally in the most of the cases. “Trademark squatter” defines a person that registers in bad faith, a trademark that is known and identified with a third party. However, it is highly recommended that you verify that the trademark you will invest your hard-earned money and scarce time in before registering or also using the trademark is not already being utilized in connection with identical or similar goods or services. For the most part, in many countries checking whether or not the trademark is already registered is sufficient. These countries are referred to as first-to-file jurisdictions example; China; trademark protection in these territories begins upon registration.

The original use of a trademark is what grants the owner the rights to it in other countries like the United States. Thus, simply checking if a trademark has been registered before the local trademark office does not make sure that a third party cannot eventually claim rights over a mark if they have previously and effectively used it in the marketplace. The following countries are referred to as first-to use jurisdictions. The finding for disputing trademarks must not be limited to trademarks that are similar but must consider those that might be likely to produce confusion. Possibility of confusion exists if there is a presumption that consumers might believe that trademarks of distinctive owners are related, affiliated, connected or that the goods or services offered under such trademarks originated from the same source, trader or provider.

Confusing similarity with another trademark can be in appearance in sound or in explaining. What similarity must be included as confusing will be determined by the consumer’s first impression and whether the two trademarks might be mistakenly interconnected or cause a similar overall commercial impression. It is sufficient if the subsequent (disputing) mark captivates the consumers final attention and such confusion is only temporary. The similarity of the two marks must still be considered as confusing even if the confusion would only be temporary and not influence the consumer’s decision to buy.

Trademark Search- No Conflicting Trademarks

The next step is to clear the trademarks by searching registration records to ensure there are no previous trademark right holders that would prevent your use once you have selected a few strong trademark candidates. There are several traps for the unwary, let’s take an example, a previously registered trademark does not have to be identical to your proposed trademark to avoid your use. Blue Shield and Red Shield for example, have been held to be confusingly same and the courts that Red Shield not be used for insurance services.

Wrong Class Registration

Most commonly, business organizations fail to indicate the correct classes of goods or services to which the brand belongs. When submitting a trademark application, the business should signify which goods or services it is to be registered with regards to. The outcome of registering a brand in the wrong class of goods or services can potentially mean that the brand is not protected with the intended products.

In addition to this, if the mistake is not realized before the brand has been registered in the wrong classes then this omission cannot be amended. Instead, the only resolution is to submit a completely new application again-an unfavorable outcome for businesses as it showcases a potentially significant waste of money and time.

Also read- 5 Things Every Brand Needs To Know About Trademark and learn more about trademark.

Availability of Domain Name

We need to make sure that .com extension is available for your trademark in the current technological world. It is good to not use hyphens in your domain name because that will send your traffic and customers to another site. Even, do not misspell common major words as it will unintentionally direct your traffic and customers to another site. You must even register the .net and .org extensions for your trademark to diminish the possibility of cyber squatters registering your domain name with those extensions.