How to Protect Your Brand with a Trademark

Understanding trademarks: What can they do?

First, it’s important to understand the distinction between the three types of protection available from the federal government. 

• A copyright protects original works of authorship both published and unpublished, such as artistic works like poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software and architecture. Copyrights do not protect facts, ideas, systems or methods of operation.
• Patents protect inventions or discoveries such as processes, machines, and designs for products.
• A trademark is a word, phrase, name or symbol that identifies a company, a product or a service and distinguishes it from competitors. 

You can trademark your company name, product names, logos and taglines. You can’t trademark an invention or a piece of software.

Trademarking Your Brand: Steps to success

To see if your business name is available to trademark, start by searching online for similar names and brands to make sure your company name isn’t already taken. Does it seem as if every name you want pops up in Google? Don’t fret: The only search results you really need to care about are those on the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) website. If your name, logo, tagline, etc. doesn’t show up there, you can begin the trademark application process. 

Most likely your brand involves more than just your company name, so you need to be clear on what exactly you want trademarked. The EUIPO will want to know if your trademark consists of words only (called a “standard character drawing”) or if it includes stylization, designs, graphics, logos or color (called a “special form drawing”). 

Protecting your Trademark: Use It or Lose It

Once your trademark has been approved, your responsibilities have just begun. Your trademark needs your care and attention if you want to maximize its full power for your brand. Use your trademark extensively so as to keep it in the public eye. Why is this important? The trademark system is based on use. If another company files for the same trademark and can prove you have not used your trademark consistently and in a high-quality manner, you could lose your rights to it. 

What happens if you miss the deadline for renewal? You do have a grace period of six months after the deadline to refile, but if you miss that deadline, you’ll need to start the trademark registration process all over again.  

If you follow the rules for care and feeding of your trademark, you’ll have nothing to worry about. Maintain your trademark registration, keep your trademark in the public eye, and you can sleep soundly with no nightmares about trademark infringement to keep you awake.