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How Does a Trade Mark Make Your Brand More Valuable?

The most valuable brands worldwide for 2024 have been announced and include big names such as *Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, TikTok and Facebook (you can read more here).

*As a side note, they are all great examples of having a distinctive not descriptive trade marked name.

So what do the world’s most valuable brand’s have in common? They all have a registered trade mark (in most cases, usually many!) protecting their brand.

A trade mark is your brand’s identity – the way you show your customers who you are. It helps to distinguish your business’ goods and services from other competitors.

It can be one of your most valuable marketing tools as the more successful your business becomes, the more valuable your trade mark is! Registering a trade mark is the only way to give you exclusive rights to use it and provide you with legal protection from anyone else infringing your registered trade mark.
Many startups don’t consider protecting their identity by registering trade marks but a trade mark is a business asset that can be franchised, licensed or sold.
Business names and logos aren’t the only thing you can trade mark. Other options include;
  • Letters
  • Numbers
  • Words
  • Phrases
  • Sounds
  • Smells
  • Shapes
  • Logos
  • Pictures
  • Colours
  • Aspects of packaging, or a combination of any of these things.

 

More Benefits to Having a Registered Trade Mark:

 

  • Only registered trade marks can carry the ®️ symbol. Once your trade mark is registered, placing the ®️ symbol immediately next to your brand puts others on notice to respect your trade mark.
  • Having a registered trade mark serves as a symbol of goodwill in the marketplace. Protecting your name through trade mark registration helps to protect your business’ reputation.
  • It helps you to prepare for the potential future growth of your business and any market expansion. Business expansion can include franchising as well as licensing your IP.
  • It helps to protect you against copycats. Having a registered trade mark gives you significant legal protection in the marketplace and allows you to enforce your legal rights.

 

Trade Mark Infringement

 

Trade mark infringement is a serious issue and without adequate protection, such as a registered trade mark, you have far less recourse to pursue legal action to remedy the infringement. Imagine building up your business to be incredibly successful without registering a trade mark and someone cashes in on your good name and branding! Unfortunately this is a common scenario.

Once you do have a registered trade mark, trade mark infringement occurs through the unauthorised use of your trade mark by another party. Infringement of your trade mark can impact your product, business and brand.

According to IP Australia, the registered owner, and in some instances the authorised user, may take an action for infringement of a registered trade mark. An action for infringement is a civil action between a trade mark owner or authorised user and the alleged infringer. The action must be brought before a court of competent jurisdiction (generally the Federal Court, the Federal Circuit Court or another court exercising Federal jurisdiction). The Registrar has no role in infringement proceedings.
There is criteria to meet for when a registered trade mark is infringed. Check out IP Australia’s website for more detail here.
What can you do to minimise the impact of or prevent trade mark infringement from happening?
  • Label your registered trade mark with the ®️ symbol
  • Monitor the marketplace for unauthorised use of your registered trade marks
  • Check current and pending trade mark registrations by searching the IP Australia website
  • Protect against counterfeit goods
  • Develop an infringement strategy with the help of an IP Lawyer

 

At Litton Legal we can assist you with registering a trade make and developing a robust IP strategy to protect your legal assets. Contact our friendly team here.