What is trademark?

A trademark is a name or logo which is used as a means to identify the services of the company.
It is known that a trademark gives protection by guaranteeing the absolute right of the owner to determine and use the goods or services or enable another to use it in return of a payment.

The laws of the trademark have a purpose to protect owners from the unlawful use of their mark. Companies are used to register domain names with their trademarks and there are a lot of examples for that: Facebook owns the domain facebook.com and Amazon owns the domain amazon.com.

What do you need to register your trademark?

Getting a trademark is a great form of protection for yourself and only possible if you are qualified for registration. You only need to trademark your domain name if you use the words in your domain name to sell a product or service and you would like to prevent others from being able to use whatever your domain is to sell similar products or services.

First things you need to do when getting your trademark is to research it thoroughly and make sure that it is available for use. Not all marks can be protected though whether someone else has a legal claim on the mark or because it is simply not a strong one, whatever the reason is you need to know that your mark can be protected in the first place. Then you are required to send an application and you must also pay the established fee and provide a drawing layout of the mark. Short representation of use might also be needed if you intent to use your mark in commerce.

There is something important that you should consider though before registering. You can’t register your domain as a trademark in these cases:

– You won’t be able to register your domain as a trademark if you are not using it for any goods, services or products.
– The main idea of the trademark is to distinguish a service or a product from identical services and products. If you don’t meet this condition you also won’t be able to register your domain as a trademark;
– When your domain name is too similar to the trademark of another company and it may confuse users;

How important are the trademarks for your domain name?

Saving your company name:

Your company name can’t be used by another person without your approval if it’s trademarked. Even if they use it, you can sue them and get a compensation. The idea of the trademark is to steer clear of a confusion that might occure and defend against altering your brand name.

Trademarks are a sufficient communication tool:

Trademarks can show messages about your company in a single logo. These messages can carry important information about your brand in a distinctive way.

You can be found easily:

In order to make your business different and noticeable you can use the help of the trademark to get a hold of the customer’s attention. When people see your trademark they won’t need a substitude because they can relate to the reputation of your company and they immediately know what you offer. In other words, your customers make a decision whether to use your services of not based on your brand name.

With the help of the trademark you can take advantage of the Internet and social media:

People will search your brand name as a service on social medias such as Facebook and Twitter or look for your brand name in a search engine. This brings traffic to your website which means your rankings get higher, the traffic increases even more and you get more clients and your brand name receives acknowledgment and popularity.

Trademarks are a valuable asset:

Popularity brings value to your bussiness and to your brand name and the reputation of your company gets bigger and flourishes. This can lead to the stretching and growing of your business to a different industry. If this is your goal the trademark can lead your company to a bigger and better enterprise. Trademarks can be used as a meaning to secure a loan in order to grow your business.

Finding staff members easily with the help of trademarks:

When your brand is noticeable and recognizable job openings are more attractive to candidates if they already have a positive attitude towards your company based on their awareness and knowledge.

To sum up it is important to protect your property and brand. With this kind of protection you are making sure that there is uniqueness and value of your services which are made available to the public under the trademark.