A trademark is a symbol, word, image, letter or combination of all. It is a brand used by the manufacturer or a company to distinguish itself from other major corporations. It serves as a brand identity for an organization. After a while, it represents your products or services and your organization’s reputation. Overall, a brand logo assists in brand marketing and brand management as well.
Examples of trademark logo:
Why register your trademark?
A registered trademark goes through a registration process that is to be enrolled at the Intellectual Property Office. Unregistered trademarks do not go through this. Once you file for federal trademark registration, the trademark goes into the database of the registry and pending assessments.
It gives out a note to the public looking for a similar version that has already been applied. Hence, your registration certificate proves the ownership. It gives you the right to bring a claim concerning the trademark logo in a government court.
The validation of registered trademarks expires after a long certain period of time (i.e. 10 years). The owner can renew or rebrand at the end of the period. In the case of non-registered trademarks, it depends on the proprietor, who should show proof with respect to the timeframe for which the brand name has kept going.
Once you register, you shield it under regulation from abuse by others. Also, once registered, you get the right to use it all over a specified location for a certain period of time. For instance, in Canada for 10 years from registration followed by renewal.
A decent initial step is to do a trademark search for existing trademarks. It checks and prevents conflict with the existing trademarks symbols, as there are about 1.4 million registered Canadian Trademarks. It is not a mandatory step, yet it will assist you with knowing whether comparative trademarks exist.
How to register?
The first step towards the process of trademark registration is to find a trademark consultant to do the search for you. The next step includes filing the trademark application (done by the consultant as well).
Once the registrar’s office receives the application, executives do all sorts of assessments and follow a particular procedure. This procedure is to make sure that it does contravene the Trademarks Act and Regulations.
During the examination process, the trademark goes for registration in the Trademark Journal. General society can give challenge your application during the process, if someone feels the application will infringe on their intellectual property rights.
The consultant does continuous follow-up with the registrar for your application to be up to date with the status of your request as no follow-up might lead to them abandoning your request. If no oppositions appear, the trademark is all set up for registration.
It is also possible to sell or pass on the trademark to another person with a proper written procedure. Informing Registrar about ownership changes relieves you from having any particular issues in the near future.
Also, it is not a requirement to mark your trademark with a symbol but many owners do assign the symbol to avoid any conflicts related to someone else using it.
“Registering a trademark is extremely useful and worth it”
