Question
We're in the process of establishing our company and would like to get some information on the issue of protecting our trademark. We have a logo, a basic marketing strategy and an up-and-running website. What are the steps we have to go through from here?
Answers: 5 public & 1 private
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.
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