Question
We are looking to register trademarks in foreign countries, as we establish more international presence abroad. What is a good global strategy for trademark protection? Is there a good approach to determining which countries should we register? What would be the approximate costs?
We are a small company operating out of Tokyo. We develop software solutions that create top-speed, highly efficient software interfaces between smartphones and IoT Devices.
Answers: 2 public & 2 private
The important thing is for you to determine which markets will bring a substantial part of your revenues.
It does not matter how big you are or where you're from. If your biggest market is Angola, you need a trademark in Angola.
If you realize that, for the sake of example, most of your revenues will come from clients in Canada and the U.S., you should trademark your brand there.
Lastly, it's important to think as to the importance of each markets AFTER you've accomplished your business goals. For example, if you have no sales in Canada today, but plan that they will be substantial in the future, trademark the brand as early as possible.
It's a lot cheaper to trademark a brand that no one knows than fight over a brand that someone else registered before you came into the new market.
I've been involved in a high-profile litigation case when Starbucks decided to come to Russia but realized that they couldn't because someone else registered their trademark there first. Trust me, you don't want to be paying the astronomical legal fees in a situation like that.
If you are interested in protecting your brand in Canada and the U.S., feel free to request your free trademark search at http://freeTMsearch.com . It's not just an automated online search, you will get our trademark agents do the search, write an opinion for you and walk you through our report—all for free.
Andrei Mincov
http://trademarkfactory.ca
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