Trademark Protection

Register and protect your brand from counterfeits and copycats as well as generate wealth by assignment, licensing, franchising, obtaining government grants and even bank loans.

Simple Q & A

A mark used or proposed to be used in relation to goods or services for the purpose of indicating or so as to indicate a connection in the course of trade between the goods or services and a person having the right either as proprietor or as registered user to use the mark.

Trademark is an aural or visual symbol used in relation to goods or services so as to indicate the origin of the goods or services and giving a product a distinct personality of its own.

A trademark helps consumers to attribute such characteristics as durability, performance, efficiency and after sale service to a particular product sold at a value under that brand.

Trademarks protect the identity of a brand. It gives an exclusive right to use such trademark and refrain others from using it to make profit from brand value and goodwill of the brand. Furthermore, wealth can even be generated with trademark registration by ways of assignment, licensing, franchising, obtaining government grants and even bank loans.

Marks which are innovative, unique, distinctive and coined are considered as ‘good trademark’ which means that they have high chances for not being opposed and getting quick registration. Marks which are common name or usual are considered as ‘bad trademark’ which means that they have high chances for being opposed.
Distinctive Marks include: Mercedes-Benz, McDonald
Some well-known online platforms:

  • Lazada – online shopping
  • Shopee – online Shopping
  • GVCOIP – online Intellectual Property Protection
  • Meta – Facebook
  • Bloomthis – online florists

As soon as you have been allotted with the trademark application number you can start using the word TM against your brand name or logo as the case may be. But you can only use the symbol R only after your trademark is registered and registration certificate is issued.

Once your trademark is registered, it is valid for 10 years but it can be further renewed for 10 years by filing a renewal application.

It takes around twelve to eighteen months to get registration certificate if there are no objections raised by the authorities or oppositions filed against your application.

There are several very good reasons for registering a trademark:

  • You have a niche business that might be copied.
  • Your business is growing rapidly and may need more protection.
  • You are seeking investors.
  • You are applying for a business loan.
  • You want to sell your business.
  • You are working with an advertising agency to produce promotions.

In all of these cases, having a registered trademark could help. Take as an example the case of seeking investors: a registered trademark is generally considered to have a monetary value, while an unregistered one might not.