Trademarks are an intellectual property form that businesses use to ensure their brand can be easily identified by consumers. A trademark also allows a company to be distinguished from other businesses. The purpose of a trademark is to ensure a customer can immediately identify the source of a particular product and instantly know whether it can be trusted or not.
The Importance Of Trademarks
A trademark can be extremely important and, indeed, valuable, when it is properly developed through the use of effective promotion and advertising, and when it is correctly used on high-quality services or products. When a trademark is registered, it gains protection so that other companies or organisations cannot use the same mark to sell their own products which may be inferior or low-quality.
What Forms Can A Trademark Take?
Trademarks can take several shapes including logos, words, or even a multimedia mark. Essentially, anything that brands are able to use to differentiate and identify their own services or goods can be classed as a trademark. While names and symbols are particularly common, shapes, colours, and jingles can also be registered as trademarks too. It is important to note, however, that any registered trademark must be entirely unique to prevent it from being confused with an existing trademark.
The Risks Of Non-Registration
Registering your trademark is important since simply owning your domain name or registering a company name gives you almost no legal right to prevent another party from using either your logo or brand name. Without registering your own trademark, you risk another party registering it as their own and then trying to prevent you from using it yourself.
It is also worth noting that if you begin to use a name or logo without having first registered it as your trademark and checking it is available for use, you could risk finding out at a later date that another company is already using a similar trademark, possibly after being alerted by a letter that tells you to cease using the name or logo since it is infringing an existing registered trademark.
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