Winning The Game Of IP Registration: How A Strong IP Legal Assistance Ensures Success
Oct 19th, 2010 Posted in law | no comment »We may think that filing intellectual property (IP) ownership rights are somewhat new a practice in business and trade. Interestingly, we stand to be corrected. Even the Romans stamped bricks to show their sign of ownership. Trademark law is quite ancient dating back to the year 1266 in England. The old law known as the “bakers marking law” used to indicate the maker of a loaf of bread. Each baker would have their own registered mark.
Trademark law is very well established world-wide. It is still young in some developing nations but that is the joy of the jungle. Most established businesses these days have trademark protection or are in the process of getting protection. Most people think that you have to legally register a mark to be able to use it, but the opposite applies. You register a mark so that others cannot use it! When you register a trademark you gain the unique right to be the only one to use the mark or to control who can use it.
A trademark is a particular mark that allows customers to recognize you without seeing your product or service. It is a unique part of your brand. Trials have shown that you can exhibit just part of a well-known trademark and people know which brand it belongs to. This indicates the power of a good image and how the brain works at remembering such things. This is why it is key to legally protect important marks and words.
In most countries if you create something yourself you have the sole rights to use this. However if an idea is used by many people it very quickly becomes common property and cannot be registered. It is always best to legally register marks and ideas. Registration legally determines the date of ownership beyond any sense of doubt. In some countries common law gives some protection but at the end of the day you have more protection if you engage trademark lawyers to protect important IP.
These days you can self-register a trademark but there are inherent hazards of taking this route alone. Trademarks lawyers know how to register and how to protect possession and pre-empt possible abuse of your IP rights. These lawyers know the gamut of registration and protection. If you self-register you may get a cheap registration cost, but run the risk of possibly having left a loop-hole for someone to use and reverse your registration later on.
Registration of trademarks can be done in one or more countries. Currently there is no such thing as a international trademark. You have to register in all the countries where you require protection.
Registration has become easier over the recent years with the existence of systems like the Madrid System of International Registration of Marks through the World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva, Switzerland but global registration is still a boring and fairly high-priced process.
The benefits of registering a trademark outweigh the costs and challenges. If you are serious on your protecting your company, you should be looking into registration today.
Talk to our accomplished IP lawyers today to carry out Intellectual Property rights registration for you.
