Register a trademark, officially

You may be unsure as to why your business needs to register a trademark.  At BATTLE we have seen many instances where trademark registration would have saved a business a lot of time, effort and pain when it came to protecting their business name rights.

When should you register a trademark?

So when should you register a trademark for your business?  In general if you want to protect your business name, logo or brand you should register a trademark for whatever countries/territories you are currently trading in.  Specifically you should consider registering a trademark if:

• You have a strong brand name: a good brand is very hard to create and can often form a key element of your USP [Unique Selling Proposition].
• Somebody is likely to copy you: a registered trademark protects you against potential copy cats by giving you legal protection against anybody else using your business name, brand or logo. It creates a barrier to entry to block your competitors.
• If you have a unique product or service: if you are doing something that nobody else is doing it’s likely that somebody, somewhere will try to copy you.  A registered trademark protects you from possible imitators who may try to trade off your good brand name.
• If you are doing something new: being the first to market can often afford a company a competitive advantage.  To protect this, protect your product/service with a registered trademark.
• If you want to sell your brand in the future: a trademark proves that you have legal title to the brand which will smooth any potential sales or transactions of the brand.
• If you have only registered your business name: registering your business name does not protect it from duplication.  If you want to ensure that nobody else can trade under your name you need to register a trademark.

BATTLE provides services to register trademarks for our customers that can include the following:

• Applications to register your trademarks.
• Trademark searches.
• Trademark strategy consultancy.
• Advice on trademark infringement.
• Trademark litigation.
• Trademark opposition to protect your registered trademark.
• Trademark agreements.
• Trademark negotiations.

To speak to a Brand Protection Consultant contact Battle today.