When to Use a Trademark Symbol on Your Brand

If your business has succeeded in registering the trademark in your country, half the work is done there and then. Registering a trademark is a remarkable move to take your company to the next level. We know about the cut-throat competition in the industry, but if you have a brand that is popular and consumers are benefited from its product and service, you can cross any hurdles of the industry.

When you have an insane sale, it is good news for the company, but it can create problems for the firms who are trying to handle their trademark rights. Moreover, those companies are more in trouble whose sale comes from another country. There is no single rule for trademark as every nation has its unique trademark rules and regulations. You cannot simply deny any rules as you can get in danger from foreign regulators, harming personal and business reputation. If you have not yet registered for a trademark and are looking for some useful information, directly scroll down! We have presented a comprehensive guide about trademarking a logo.

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Everything About Trademark

A trademark is there to protect the slogan, logo, image which is being used by some other individual. A trademark can be in any shape or size but it has to be different. The people who wish to associate with the brand must recognize the trademark. Do you remember the swoosh symbol? Yes, as it has a unique symbol that is present in every product of Nike like clothing products and sneakers so that people are able to recognize it easily.

How Can Trademark Protect Your Brand?

The ultimate purpose of a trademark is to secure your brand’s identity in this ocean full of industries. Like we can understand this by considering another famous brand, Adidas. You might have seen that there are three white stripes in the logo of Adidas, so people can easily identify a pair of shoe which has the same logo. There are also instances that some other company manufactures shoes with two stripes, so people will buy it considering that Adidas company has made those shoes. This way, Adidas can be in a great loss in two ways, First of all, because they will fail their loyal consumer base and second of all, the duplicate company will sell shoes of inferior quality.

The trademark law is violated when another company uses the identity of the host brand, which creates confusion in the consumer’s mind. Such infringing companies must completely stop these false practices.

Who Possess the Logo Trademark?

When the company starts using the trademark for each and every product, then it becomes the authentic entity for ownership of the trademark. The designer of the logo is not the trademark owner. Any business owner who employs the trademark in the business has the authority over a particular trademark.

What is the Advantage of Registering Logo as a Trademark?

In the United States, trademark rights are regulated when the trademark is used for commercial purposes. It also means that when you start advertising your product with the logo, it is considered as trademarked as per the law. These trademark laws are generally different for every country and it is challenging to enforce them. Even if you do not have to officially register the trademark with US Patent, you would need to have a registered trademark. 

Logo Qualification for Registration

Even when the Patent Office approves thousands of applications for a trademark in one year, not all trademarks are completely qualified for the registration. The trademarks must not be misleading or vulgar. The applications of the trademark which are almost similar to the current brands will be rejected except if the products are entirely unique than the existing brand. Marks that are almost similar in visual will create confusion among the consumer and will not be registered anywhere.

Powerful Trademarks

The main aim of the trademarking is to differentiate your brand from other brands. Therefore the trademark you want to create must be totally unique.  They are classified in two ways, weak and strong. The password which is unique can be easily protected by the law that is why it is considered a powerful one. Also, when people can identify a particular brand without any confusion, it is a sign of a strong trademark. The strongest logos are generally very fancy or imaginative like it does not have any direct connection with the product such as Apple. Some generic logos such as Pizza Town will have a tough time to get a trademark. Also, people are more fascinated with the place or brand which has a fancy name.

Why Can’t You Register Your Logo as a Trademark?

There are various reasons why you may not choose to seek trademark registration, depending on your business situation. 

• When you are unsure about the tenure of your business. Applying and getting the trademark registered is a very lengthy process which can be more than 10 months.
• The application is also quite expensive, starting at a fee of $325 which is a basic application without any legal tax.
• Your logo can be changed in the coming years. Only the actual version can be protected under the trademark act.
• Moreover, the registered logo trademark must be used constantly to retain the rights. If you do not wish to establish your brand for a longer time, there is no point in its registration. 
• Some logo cannot be registered if it is similar to some other brand which is already working in the same country. 
• If you have decided to be in the same geographic area for a long time, then the common law will provide you proper protection.

How to Employ the Trademark Symbol?

There are some trademark symbols such as ® and ™ which can be combined to a design that signifies that a logo is a trademark. You can also employ the ® symbol for the registration of the trademark. You are not required to use the symbol with every sight of your trademark as they can mess up the visual space that is not legally necessary.

Put the Symbols in Text Form

You can insert the symbol by selecting it from the map given in the apple. In the Apple Operating system, hold the key and the 2 keys to get a trademark sign. You can also use the R symbol for a trademark that is registered. 

The trademark owners have various options to manage problems in cooperation with the foreign rules, even then there are lots of drawbacks to it. If your labeling includes the ® mark and wishes to ship in a country with the registered mark, you have to hide the mark with a sticker. You can also avoid using such a mark but then there is a risk of losing a trademark of the product.

Summing Up

An accurate trademark management strategy mostly designed for foreign sales gets started with the proper estimation of the international markets which is useful for increasing the profit of the business. You can also contact the trademark attorney who has the knowledge to tackle the foreign markets along with the local markets. We hope now you have received enough knowledge about trademarking your logo to kickstart your business.