Is a brand name subject to legal protection? This article will help you find answers to all of your questions.
Even the most radical and groundbreaking innovation can get copied or stolen without legal consequences for the malefactor if it is not legally protected. Then how is your brand name safe in such circumstances?
The bigger your brand is, the higher the chances they get exposed to imitators and deceivers. An act that aims to copy your business name can ruin your brand reputation and even affect your revenue.
Thus before starting a business, you must know how to register and protect your brand name.
What is Brand Protection?
Brand protection lets the associations cover their intellectual property and associated brands against people who fake and infringe on these trade secrets.
These trade secrets consist of copyrights, trademarks, patents, and designs. Brand protection covers revenue loss but also ensures that the company’s character and image do not get spoiled.
In layman’s terms, brand protection prevents any abuse of the brand.
Why is Brand Protection Necessary?
The sense is simple enough; if you are dealing with a product with trademark registration in your name, there are chances that the product being counterfeit by external people. Hence, associations need to adopt a brand protection strategy.
One of the reasons the companies are at threat of counterfeiting is because of the expansive investment – both in forms of time and money, that they put into their brand, conducting detailed exploration & development of their products, or spending hours and hours of their work in strictly designing the products. Now, let’s dive deep into whether brand names can be legally protected.
5 Things to Legally Protect Your Brand Name
The question is whether can a brand name be legally protected. Yes, various legal methods are adopted to do so.
1. Apply for a Trademark
Trademarks are names, logos, and symbols of a brand that describes the business. It gets used to identify or distinguish products, services, or a group of objects owned by one entity. For instance, a word, text, name, signature, painting, inscription, etc., are trademarks.
Apply for a trademark so you can legally protect your brand name. A registered mark will give you the right to deter others from copying or making similar brands.
If you have a registered trademark, you can stop the deceivers and file legal suits against them under the Intellectual property laws of our country. But, if you don’t form a trademark, it will be expensive and problematic to safeguard your brand name from getting copied or misused.
So before starting a business, consider securing a trademark and copyright protection for your brand and its name. Do this on a priority basis without any delay. The costs for the legal proceedings can be excessively high if you depend upon unregistered rights.
2. Secure Your Trademark
After the successful registration, if your trademark gets approved, use it constantly in businesses and showcase it to the public.
A brand should use the ® symbol on the logo and the brand name. That describes the brand name as a registered trademark hence no one else can use it without the owner’s authorization.
3. Stay Digitally Active
Social media plays a significant role in attracting the public and customers in the digital age. By securing domain names and social media accounts, customer trust gets built. It becomes essential to stay active on social media and have verified accounts. Social media accounts can get used to answer customer queries, issues, and problems.
Updating daily posts and having a large community of followers account can get verified. One can prevent counterfeiters from making fake accounts under the brand name. A matching domain name for your brand name helps customers to find your official site.
4. Create a Company Logo and Branding Materials
One thing that can help ingrain your company is creating a company logo. It will make your business more recognizable and professional in the eyes of guests and potential mates.
Talking about trademarks to have cohesive branding is crucial since it helps demonstrate that consumers associate your brand with specific products or services.
5. Your Brand Name Should Not be Generic.
An important aspect of trademark law is the icing that your brand name needs to be more generic. A brand name is known to be general if it refers to a type of product/ service other than a specific brand.
It means that anyone could use your brand name without consequence, which could lead to lots of confusion among consumers.
Conclusion
These are the tips to help you protect your brand name. Of course, there are numerous other legal options you should be sure to consult with an attorney before making any opinions. So, you must have an idea of whether a band name can be legally protected.
It is necessary to know the various legal protections available. The best method to ensure the integrity of your brand is to protect it.
In a nutshell, a precisely nurtured brand reflects the heart and energy you invest in setting up a business, cultivating the goodwill and character you earn from your followership.
Consumers develop a commitment to brands for life, and those are passed on down generations and across mores, getting public icons and particular identifiers. A product is frequently just as good as its brand – and a good brand is worth guarding. Thanks for reading!
