Trademark
Table of Contents
A name is not just another word!
Trademark provides identity to your brand. Regardless of sector, domain, size, customer strength, competition or the established year every business requires one thing in common to mark their identity. A good name.
Many may wonder, “What’s in a name!” or “It’s just a word”. But from the way it sounds to the ability to define the uniqueness of the business, a good brand name takes a lot of brain hours to establish. Not just the appeal in the way a brand name sounds, but the whole notion the name can generate within a potential customer’s mind when they hear it is also considered while choosing the name.
Indeed, there are huge brand names that just use some generic word with twisted spelling, making their way to the top of the market. Yet in their case too either the way it sounds or the way it is presented plays an important role. As a matter of fact, the efforts behind it are usually gone unnoticed.
So if you are preparing for starting a business and weaving the dream of a successful entrepreneur in yourself, be prepared for that extra effort to find and fix the name. Of course, just like any other business task, you must seek assistance from experts as this step determines the future of your establishment to a considerable extent.
Trademarking – A fundamental business right
Right from the moment a business takes the form of a brainchild, you own the business. Yet when it comes to branding, it is an entirely different set of responsibility which can be too much for a business owner to handle. For the smooth run of a business, it is always advisable to entrust ‘the ownership of the brand’ to experts.
Just naming the best possible way will not help a business to get established. It requires strengthening procedures like trademarking. Trademarking being the process of ensuring the protection of your business name and logo from being used by any other later players in the market, requires several steps to complete.
Once the business name is fixed, trademarking procedure starts with the trademark search which is essentially the process of preempting the possibilities of any other business owner from having the name. Followed by, from filing trademark application to registration and publication to obtaining certificate the process requires various procedures.
The entire process is time consuming. It can extend from a few months to years according to the complexities involved due to the selected name. However, the trademark symbol can be used while the registration process is ongoing (unregistered trademark). Apart from this, timely renewal of the trademark is also necessary to protect the brand.
All the above mentioned procedures can be tedious for a business owner to handle. That’s where the assistance of an expert consultant comes in handy. Entrusting the branding with an expert consultant not only provides the ease of business but also the much needed finesse to the branding procedures as well.
Copyright – ‘A stitch in time’
Equivalent to trademarking, copyrighting the brand related creatives provides an additional level of protection to the brand as such. In a digitally entwined world, good creatives are easily copied. Regardless whether the copying is affecting our business or harmless, copyright is always the safest way to protect the content. This prevents any unauthorized usage of the brand contents also by using latest automated copyright protection tools which in turn save the business owners from unwanted legal proceedings that can cost time and money.
As said about the trademark process, copyright also requires different steps to complete. Most steps are similar to trademarking. However, there are some additional steps like ensuring no discrepancies, objection or opposition for the copyright. This process too is difficult for a business owner to handle. Entrusting the task with an expert consultant can indeed save money and time.
