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All businesses should have a registered trade
mark. As a minimum, the business or main brand name should be
registered:
Even more important is to register and "block
out" worldwide your domain name!! This is the cheapest and fastest way to obtain
protection, if you are the only one with the domain name, then others cannot use
your domain to do business.
Our advice is simple, DO IT NOW!
Many companies started small, did not protect
there brand name, did not block out the domain name so a uk company takes the
domain.co.uk, and ignores the .com, .eu, .asia etc and then are surprised when
goods or designs they have created are sold through a HK or Delaware
company.
Wise up, protect every domain name in
existance TODAY!!! You may be small today, but tomorrow? don't hesitate do it.
If you need help then contact us.. we will do it for you,
worldwide!
This is the only way to stop others from
copying names, logos, slogans or other things.
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Business name registration does not work.
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Many people think that registering a business
name means that it is protected and it stops other people from using
the same business name.
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It doesn't!
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Registering a business name is almost useless for
protection purposes. Firstly, each country/state is different. i.e.
Registering "Ultrashine Carwash" in Victoria does not stop someone else
from setting up their own "Ultrashine Carwash" in NSW.
Secondly, it does not stop someone from registering a very similar name
- even in the same state. Examples are "Ultrashine Car Cleaning" or
"Ultrashiny Carwash". The only real function business name registration
has is to notify the govenment of the owner of the business.
The same applies with company (ie. Pty Ltd) names.
What happens if clients do not
register a trade mark?
If Ultrashine Carwash is not registered as a
trade mark, it is very expensive and difficult to stop someone else from calling
their business exactly the same name.
Legal advice would probably be like this:
You do not have an automatic legal right to stop
anyone else from using the name "Ultrashine Carwash". If you want to stop the
other company from using the same name, you will have to sue under "Passing
off" law. This law requires us to prove to the court that you have a strong
reputation attached to the "Ultrashine Carwash" name. This means expensive
surveys and paying for expert witnesses. We will also have to spend at least
several days in court trying to convince a judge that the other company is
piggybacking your reputation. Each day in court can cost upwards of $20,000. A
Passing Off case can easily cost at least $100,000 or more and there is no
guarantee of winning.
What happens if you register a trade
mark?
When a business registers "Ultrashine Carwash" as a trade
mark, it will have the automatic legal right to stop anyone in Australia from using
the name. It will have the right to sue the other company for "Trade mark
infringement" not "Passing off" law.
All it will need to show the judge is that it has registered the name and that the
other company is using the same or a similar name. The court is likely to order
them to change their name and to pay compensation money.
Because the other company's lawyer will tell them this, the case is unlikely to
even go to court, and they are likely surrender very quickly. The only time the
case will go to court will be if competitors genuinely think that they have used a
very different name (ie. "Extrashine Car Care") and they are willing to pay the
legal costs to fight the case.
A settlement is much easier to achieve.
Most importantly, when businesses have a registered trade mark, they can use the
symbol ®. Just by using this symbol, most copycats are scared off so they may not
even have a problem to begin with. In our experience, it reduces copying by at
least 60%!
Our recommendation
It is very important for businesses to register everything
that they do not want others to copy.
This includes:
- Name
- Domain Names
- Packaging
- Logo
- Colours
- Slogan
- Sounds
- Shapes
- Smells
- URL's
Because trade marks are powerful tools, businesses need
to choose their trade marks lawyers carefully, first step is to register your
domain names, search for your domain name here,
and for global protection search here
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