4 Benefits of Registering a Trade Mark For Your Logo
Angus
Your logo is important to your business, and you may be considering a trade mark to protect it. However, you may be confused about the benefits of completing the registration process. Registering a trade mark for your logo is a great way to protect your intellectual property. It also helps your business become more established in the market that you are operating in. This article will explore some of the benefits of registering your logo as a trade mark.
Benefit #1: Prevent Others From Using Your Logo
One of the key benefits you get from registering a trade mark for your logo is preventing other people and businesses from using your logo. Protecting your valuable and often hard-earned goodwill in your brand’s identity is fundamental to your business. Allowing other people to use your logo is a sure way to erode consumer confidence in your goods and services.
For example, if you have a competitor using your logo that you do not have a trade mark on, it will be hard for you to stop the other business from using the logo and all of the hard work you put into your logo’s goodwill. It will detract from your business’ profits, and if your competitors put out low-quality products in your name, it will harm your business’ reputation.
Benefit #2: Licence Your Logo
If you have a trade mark over your logo, you can licence your intellectual property in that logo to other businesses. Licencing is a great way to expand your business by giving your business’ goodwill to other people so they can make money and expand your brand’s reach. It also allows you to control who uses your intellectual property and how they use it, ensuring brand consistency.
For example, say you want to franchise your smoothie business, and you have a logo that is associated with your brand. If you have a trade mark on that logo, then you will be able to licence the logo as part of your franchising package to your clients.
Benefit #3: Gain National Protection
Registering a trade mark for your logo will give you national protection of your intellectual property. This is because federal law governs trade marks and intellectual property, which means that you will be able to defend your logo against infringement in any state or territory in Australia. You can bring an action against a business or person that uses your logo in the federal courts. National protection gives you more options when deciding whether to enforce your intellectual property rights in your trade mark.
For additional protection, you can lodge an international trademark application. You can choose the countries you will be operating your business in and apply through IP Australia to protect your trade mark.
Benefit #4: Give Your Business Value
A business with a strong trade mark portfolio is more valuable. With strong trade mark protection over your logos, potential buyers will be more likely to offer a higher purchasing price if you ever decide to sell your business. This is because you have done all the hard work to protect your logo and prevent other people from taking advantage of your business’ goodwill in the market. In addition to expanding the value of your business, you will build a solid intellectual property portfolio that you can use to develop your business in new markets.
Key Takeaways
Before deciding to register a trade mark in your logo, you should consider what:
- your logo is and whether you would like to trade mark it;
- you intend to do with your logo once it is trade marked; and
- your future business plans are.
Once you consider these issues, you will able to decide if a trade mark is suitable for your logo. If you have any questions about the benefits of registering a trade mark for your logo or need trade mark legal assistance, contact our experienced trade mark lawyers on 1300 657 423 or fill out the form on this page.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can stop using your trade mark for short periods only. If you do not plan on using your trade mark in the long term, you may be subject to a trade mark cancellation from IP Australia. This prevents people from registering trade marks they do not use to reduce competition in the market place.
If you register a trade mark with IP Australia, you will have protection in every state and territory in Australia. This is because federal law governs intellectual property.
You can licence your intellectual property to other people when you have a registered trade mark.