Brand Protection
September 19, 2019
Branding is important to business. Trademarks are just one element in brand protection. Domain names are also key to an online brand, and copyright and design rights are also relevant ways in which brand elements are protected by the law.
What steps should I take to protect my brand?
- As a first step, securing you brand name and logo should be prioritised through registration of trademarks, domain names and designs.
- Once these are registered, it is important to remain vigilant in case others apply to register confusingly similar brand symbols. Through subscribing to our brand protection service you can easily police your brand.
- It is also important to be vigilant in case cybersquatters register a domain name similar to your own. Our brand protection service includes an option to watch domain names.
- Aside from watches to protect the brand, it is also important to have an effective system in place to manage the brand so as to be aware of potential issues touching the brand’s reputation
Why use a brand protection service?
There are many different elements to our brand protection service, an important one of which is the trademark watch element
- In many countries, including the UK, the trademark registries do not stop applicants registering even identical names. The most the UK registry will do is to notify prior mark owners of potentially infringing applications and give them an opportunity to oppose the application.
- Some registries will make no checks at all to see if there are any earlier marks. This makes trademark watching essential as it falls on trademark owners themselves to police their marks.
- By putting a watch service in place, you can help ensure others do not register trademarks that are similar to yours, either in the specific countries where you have registered your mark, or in other countries worldwide where you may be using a mark without having yet registered it.
- Another reason for using a watch service is that in some countries such as China the right to a trademark is primarily granted by registration rather than by being the first user, or “rightful” owner. Therefore it pays to be notified of hostile applications early, as this can give you time to negotiate a solution if there is a conflict.
