Trademark Design And Registration

A trademark or Trade Mark is a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image, or a combination of these. It is used by a business to uniquely identify itself and its products or services to consumers and distinguish itself from other businesses.

Trademark Registration, in most countries, is granted by the government. Registration provides an exclusive trading privilege to the owner of the mark on their goods or services.

In the past, trademark registration was country specific and separate applications had to be made for each country of interest. It is now possible to register trademarks for specific groups of countries with one application.

The two main organisations providing this facility are:

The Community Trade Mark Registry (CTM) - covering all the EU countries.
The Madrid Protocol (MP) - covering a group of about sixty countries.

If your company trades internationally, then it would be more economical and simple to use the above organisations.

Upon registration, you will need to supply; copies of the trademark design, information on the products or services for which registration is sought, the name and address of the Trademark Owner, and of course the fee.

In most cases, a trademark is granted for ten years, and must be renewed for further periods of this thereafter.

The ™ symbol may be used when trademark rights are claimed in relation to a mark, but the mark has not been registered with any government patent office. The ® symbol is used to indicate that the mark has been registered. The use of the ® symbol when the mark has not been registered is unlawful.

Proprietary rights in relation to a trademark design may be established through the mark's actual use in the marketplace, even when no registration has been sought; however, some countries do not recognise this.

If a trademark has been registered, then it is much easier for the trademark owner to demonstrate its trademark rights and to enforce these rights through an infringement action. Unauthorised use of a registered trademark need not be intentional in order for infringement to occur, although damages in an infringement lawsuit will generally be greater if there was an intention to deceive.

It is interesting to note; if a company threatens to sue another for trademark infringement, but does not have a genuine basis or intention to carry out that threat, or does not carry out the threat at all within a certain period, the threat may itself become a basis for legal action.

Useful Trademark links: