Intellectual Property

The following is applicable to business owners register as a Close Corporation or Company or Co-operative

Differences between trademarks, business names and domain names

Registering a business, company or domain name does not give you any proprietary rights. Only a trade mark can provide that kind of protection. If you register a business, company or domain name, you do not automatically have the right to use that name as a trademark.

The same word(s) may be registered by different people as a business name in other states and territories. However, if you have a registered trade mark in South Africa, you can take legal action for infringing your trade mark if the business name owner uses it for goods or services like those covered by your trade mark registration in South Africa.

Trade mark: Used to distinguish your goods or services from those of other traders. When you register a trade mark you obtain exclusive use of the trade mark in the country where your trade mark is registered.

Business name: A business name is the name under which your business operates. Registration identifies the owners of the business. Unlike trademarks, company names do not necessarily provide proprietary rights for the use of the trading name.

Domain name: All computers on the internet have a unique identifying number - an Internet Protocol address. Because Internet Protocol addresses are difficult to remember, we use a domain name - a unique name that corresponds with an Internet Protocol address (www).

We at Danie Fourie Consultants will gladly assist if you require to own a more comprehensive protection with regards to your business name by registering a trade mark