8 Reasons To Apply For A Trademark

1

• 8 Reasons To Apply For A Trademark

2
Intro

• You may not have full proprietary rights to a
  corporation or business name just by registering
  the name.
• And did you know that in some nations, a third
  party might register your brand as a trademark
  and then "squat" on it until you paid for the
  rights?
• You may already have some trademark rights if you
  have a brand and market goods or services under
  it. "Unregistered trademark rights" refer to
  these.
• However, there is a catch unregistered trademark
  rights are more restricted than registered
  trademark rights.

3
Here are 8 reasons to register your trademarks
4

• The most efficient rights Apply for a trademark
  is the quickest and most cost-effective way to
  ensure legal exclusivity over a brand. When you
  get trademark registration its like getting a
  certificate of title for the brand. It
  massively reduces the risk of being stopped from
  using YOUR brand, name or logo by other traders.
• Better geographical coverage Unregistered
  trademark rights only extend to places where you
  can demonstrate the reputation of the trademark.
  This means, places where there is market
  awareness of your business or brand. However,
  registered trademarks give you legal rights
  throughout a particular country (such as
  Australia). Registration also allows you to
  prevent others from using your trademark in
  markets where you have not yet used your
  trademark (i.e. where you cant demonstrate
  unregistered rights).

5

• Beat Trademark Squatters In contrast to
  Australia, a few other nations award trademark
  rights to the first party to submit a
  registration application, even if someone else
  has been using the trademark in that market. This
  system permits opportunistic behaviour by third
  partiesalso known as "trademark squatters"who
  register another party's trademark and then
  attempt to sell the registration to the actual
  owner. While it is occasionally feasible to
  recover a trademark from a squatter, the process
  is typically costly, time-consuming, and
  uncertain. A few nations that use a first-to-file
  system are the Philippines, Indonesia, South
  Korea, Thailand, China, Japan, Germany, Spain,
  and France, among others.

6

• Deter copycats and wannabes
• A registered trademark is the best deterrent to
  others considering using a trademark similar or
  identical to yours to sell products or services
  like yours. Consider these facts
• The symbol is only used for identifying
  registered trademarks, and clearly notifies
  others of your rights.
• Those considering a new brand can easily find an
  identical or similar brand if its a registered
  trademark, simply by searching the official
  register of trademarks. This reduces the
  likelihood that a third party will choose to use
  a conflicting mark in the first place.
• Registered trademarks are a clear obstacle to
  others seeking to register a conflicting
  trademark. Existing registered trademarks can be
  significant obstacles to others trying to
  register conflicting trademarks.

7

• Faster, cheaper enforcement - If someone else
  uses a conflicting mark, its generally easier,
  quicker and cheaper to enforce a registered
  trademark than an unregistered trademark.
  Registering a trademark establishes prima facie
  ownership, whereas the burden of proof falls on
  you if its an unregistered trademark. The first
  step in the process is always providing evidence
  that the unregistered rights actually exist,
  which can be hard work, not to mention costly.
• Streamlined commercialisation - Registered
  trademarks can be more simply and effectively
  licensed for use by third parties (such as
  franchisees and distributors).

8

• Freedom to Operate - The Australian Trade Marks
  Act 1995 provides that a person does not infringe
  (another) registered mark when they exercise a
  right given to them under the Act (i.e. use their
  own registered trademark). This gives the owner
  of a registered trademark a defence against
  accusations of infringement of another registered
  trademark.
• Upsized brand value - All these advantages of
  owning a registered trademark can significantly
  increase the perceived value of a brand to other
  parties. This enhances value when you sell or
  license the trademark, compared with an
  unregistered trademark.