It conveys ownership, source, quality, and values. Your brand conveyed by means of a trademark and/ or logo is crucial to your company’s success. Here’s why it needs protection:
A trademark and corresponding logo can have intangible value for a brand; it communicates to your customers what your brand stands for and distinguishes you from your competitors. Therefore, knowing about trade mark and logo protection is integral to your business strategy.
If a competitor comes in and protects a similar logo before you, they can sue you, and you’ll have to rebuild your brand image from scratch. You do not want to do that.
Let’s get in-depth and understand why logo protection is essential for your business.
What is logo protection?
Logo protection means protecting your logo, typically the stylized representation of your trade mark and brand, from your competitor or any business that intends to steal your business’s logo. But how do you protect your logo? By filing an application for registration of your logo as a trade mark with the Trade Marks Registry.
Trademarking a logo makes you the owner of the logo legally. No one can use your logo unless they have permission to use it from you. If someone uses your logo without permission, you have the legal right to sue them and get compensation for the illegal use of your logo.
Reasons to protect logo by trademarking for your business
Customers recognise you and your company based on a variety of distinguishing characteristics. They consider your online personality and tone of voice and your distinct image in the marketplace.
While many things can contribute to a company’s aesthetic, from website design to signage and carefully crafted marketing campaigns, your logo is your most valuable visual asset.
Customers frequently form opinions based on your logo before they have a chance to learn more about your company and what it stands for by reading product descriptions or evaluating your website.
After all, your logo can be found on everything you own, from product packaging to email newsletters. Let’s look at the prominent reasons for logo protection.
Aid in brand recognition
A business can secure its logo by trademarking it. By trademarking a logo, one distinguishes its services and products from competitors, thereby acquiring intellectual property. It prevents competitors from copying or stealing their brand.
Encourages employees to join
When a company has a trademark, it is critical to keep a good reputation. A company with a good reputation is more likely to attract and retain employees. It is especially true in terms of growth. If a business wants to grow, it will need more employees. It necessitates the development of a budget, making the trademark a critical asset when seeking a business loan.
Avoids future legal issues
Failure to register a trademark exposes a company to legal action from companies that have registered a trademark under the same name, sign, slogan, or design. When this happens, a company is forced to change everything it has created, including the campaign, website content, and, to a large extent, its brand identity.
Valid for life
A trademark is perpetual, requiring only periodic renewal. Consider the aforementioned large companies—Pampers and Jacuzzi; they have been powerhouses in their respective fields for decades and will continue to thrive in the future. It highlights the importance of conducting thorough trademark research to ensure that the governing body does not deny a business’s application.
As a result, it is prudent to retain the services of a reputable Intellectual Property service provider in India with a good reputation to assist you with trademarking your business.
Company’s most valuable asset.
A logo can catalyse increasing value as a startup business matures, especially if the business continues to grow. As a result, it is critical to use a trademark in marketing strategies to improve brand recognition and attract more customers.
Consumers will associate a business’s trademark with how it operates once it has established a positive reputation for its product or service. Trademarks are extremely useful when a company wants to:
- Increase the variety of its products or services.
- License your way into franchising, and
- Increase your value by putting yourself up for sale.
Communicates to people that you mean business
It’s no secret that trademarks lend credibility to a company’s name; consider Disney. Imagine if Disney did not trademark their name or brand. Consider the legal mayhem that would ensue; people would fight tooth and nail to profit from the empire of success surrounding their trademarked brand.
Furthermore, if a company has a trademark attached to its brand, it shows the world and competitors alike that they believe in their company’s success and that they have something worth stealing. That may sound morbid, but it is the truth.
Would you defend something that isn’t worth protecting? Going above and beyond for logo protection by registering it as a trademark for your company casts a different light on you in the eyes of your target customers.
Provides a sense of independence
It’s no secret that the market is highly saturated in various niches ranging in size and function. It’s a gruesome scene. Being even the smallest fish in the smallest pond as a startup is extremely difficult. In this regard, a trademark can serve as a crutch; once a startup has established itself, it will want to maintain its good standing.
Trademarking a logo allows a new company to cushion the blows of the market by wearing a protective blanket; it both directly and indirectly informs others that the brains behind the company are serious about business.
When establishing a business, registering a trademark should be a top priority. It will safeguard a company from the start, allowing it to thrive in the long run. It is critical to secure a startup from the beginning to gain an advantage and avoid financial loss in the future.
Tips for logo protection
Perform a trademark search
Even if you believe you have the perfect logo, it is critical to search for similar logos to check if they exist. So, you can see already registered trademarks and determine whether they are identical to yours. If you use a logo similar to a registered trademark, you may inadvertently infringe on someone else’s trademark and face legal consequences.
Register your company name.
Your logo will likely include your company’s name. Many companies, such as Apple, Facebook, and Mcdonald’s, base their logos on their names. So, it’s a good idea (especially if you’re a sole proprietor) to register your company’s name.
If your company name differs from your trading name, you must also register it as a business name. You can trademark your company’s name after you’ve registered it.
Make your logo a trademark (and all variations of it)
Along with your company name, you should always trademark your logo. By safeguarding your new logo, you can prevent others from copying or misusing it, thus enabling strong and legal logo protection. Additionally, having a registered trademark allows you to use the ® symbol on your logo and business name. It will show others that you have a trademark for your logo and business name.
You can use the TM symbol to indicate that you have a trademark application pending between when you file it and when it is approved. Aside from trademarking your main logo, you may have variations.
For instance, if your company’s colours are blue and green, you may want to have one logo in blue and one in green. It’s also a good idea to have a neutral colour variation of your logos, such as black or white. These variations for your logo will allow you to use and adapt it to different materials, but remember that a trademark only protects the asset for which it is registered.
Have legal safeguards on your website.
Most modern businesses have websites which help them connect with and market to customers. Websites should be designed per your company’s colour scheme and overall design theme.
Although your website’s logo will be protected if you have a trademark, other content on your website may not be. The terms of service and copyright notice on your website will help preserve its contents. The terms of service document will inform users about acceptable and unacceptable behaviour on your site (for example, plagiarism), and copyright notice will reinforce your creative rights.
Reasons to take the help of an expert to trademark your business logo
Directly, all business visionaries are embarking on online logo registration in India due to its simple strategies. A struggling business proprietor should follow the advice of a trademark lawyer or a legal professional when registering a logo.
The logo search is an integral part of the process, and one should be very clear about what they require in terms of a specific logo look based on the business requirements. A logo registration India expert can search for the desired logo in national and universal logo databases to keep a strategic distance from any future legal battles between business rivals.
Assisting with a logo registration is the best bet to keep a strategic distance from future difficulties in this logo fight. Every company requires a significant logo because it is the company’s intellectual property, and everyone must display it in front of the global market to attract many customers.
To Conclude:
How many nights and cups of tea did it take you to design the logo for your startup? Ten nights, fifteen nights, a month? Would you let just anyone walk away with your logo and identity? Clearly, no! As a result, logo protection is essential.
When used correctly, a logo can provide valuable information about your company to your target audience. It can tell your customers about the type of business you run, the values you hold, etc. Logos can even foster brand loyalty, with 43% of customers spending more on brands to which they are loyal.
Like the other components of your brand identity, your logo is part of the valuable DNA that distinguishes your venture from the crowd. By utilising logo copyright or trademark, you can ensure that you have the necessary logo protection to defend your logo and brand.
Trademark registration entails registering your company’s name or logo with the trademark office. In India, you can trademark any of the following items or a combination of them: letter, number, word, phrase, logo, graphic, sound mark, or colour combination.
