What should we do regarding trademarks?

It is always difficult to reply to such questions without all the information we need to fully understand your business.

First, you have to register your brand to have a valid trademark and to avoid other companies to receive benefit from your marketing at no cost.

Then you need to see if you are going to stay local or international, at this point I guess that I have an idea, as you have a website, you surely want to serve customers all around the world, so I encourage you to register in the countries where you should have customers.

I often recommend to my client, US, Canada also as it is your domestic market, Europe (which mean 28 countries protection in one registering process) and China if you selling goods and not only services.

Once you did all of that, maybe by registering the logo and the name, you will be all set for starting your business without fear to see another company trying to reach your legitime customers by using your logo or brand name.

But the life of a brand is a long run, you will have to ask a lawyer to check for you on the market and in the trademark databases to avoid infringement and dilution of your Trademark.

Please do not make the general mistake to register by yourself, Trademark is easy to register online, but that does not mean that you are well protected. You need a lawyer to be sure to register a valid one and to not discover too late that your registration has no value as you missed to comply with a regulation or the general use, or even worse that you are sued by a company that acquired the right to use the brand after you but by the right way.

If you provide us with more information we maybe help you with more accurate tips to register your logo and brand, in the US, in the Europe and in China. As we are lawyers in all of this countries, you will pay less to register with our service than to do it by yourself through the international registration service of your local trademark registration office.

We generally recommend newer companies - when taking into consideration limited budgets - to register their trademarks in the countries where they have the most business interests first. Given that each country has its own trademark legislation, the best way to go per every country is 1) assessing the trademark's chances of being registered; 2) if the assessment is good then proceed with the application; 3) wait for the examining office's response and take action accordingly.

You may also consider the International Trademark System (Madrid Protocol) that permits you to file one application covering several Countries.
Also remember that Switzerland does not make part of the European Trademark System.

Start with a comprehensive trademark search that you can order for free from Trademark Factory by filling out the form at http://freeTMsearch.com .

If the brand is trademarkable, we will be happy to offer you one of our three unique packages. Our most popular package is All-Inclusive with a single flat fee that covers everything from start to finish and a 100% money-back guarantee.

Good to be thinking about these things early. For new brands, the most important thing is to have a search done to clear your brand (name, logo, slogan) and ensure that you're not going to infringe anyone else's rights. Nothing worse than launching and having to rebrand because of a threat of infringement proceedings. If a search gives you an all clear then it is a good idea to proceed to filing your mark/s.