Should I Trademark my Logo??

Have you ever thought to trademark your logo??, the answer actually differs from Blogger to Blogger. But now-a-days the modern bloggers prefer to register their trademark as they are benefited from it. Earlier, Blogs were something informal, which was used to just have a personal communication or connection. But at present they have evolved into Business and Brands Particularly, they have become singleton worth trademarking.

Trademarking extends merely filing an application. Only attractive, strong, unique brands will receive trademark registrations. Therefore, a company must search high and low for any existing mark that can be considered confusingly similar to the authorities.

Even after the registration is done and you get the “name allotment certificate”; later one has to protect the logo so that other singleton does not infringe on their rights. For this, one must go through the steps to protect your trademark rights, which can sometimes include litigation.

There are many Bloggers who have got into many problems in the Trademark process. These bloggers had applied for, or own, federal trademark rights. But they’ve each encountered obstacles along the way. Bloggers thinking about registering their own trademarks will do well to learn from those who have come before them.

The biggest takeaway for bloggers is, to conduct extensive research before pursuing trademark rights. Better yet, research trademarks early in the process. It’s easier to pivot as a young blogger than it is as an established one.

 Thus, receiving federal trademark rights is only the beginning. To continue enjoying the rights and benefits of trademark ownership, you must take steps to protect your trademark. In some cases, there might be a necessity of filing a lawsuit. While unappealing to some, failing to take protective measures can diminish your rights as a trademark owner.

CoinproBiz Solutions has been established to provide exclusive services in the field of Company Registration, Intellectual Property Rights, Trademarking, Copyright Registration and allied services, with the help of specialized and experienced professionals from varied backgrounds such as Company Secretaries, Chartered Accountants, Corporate Lawyers and Business Professionals. We are dedicated to provide the best recommendations and execution for leading, middle market and emerging growth companies to promote their business.

In today’s fiercely competitive marketplace, Intellectual Property Law ensures that your business’ artistic rights are registered with and granted by the appropriate government agencies to protect investment in names, symbols and other representations used to identify your products and services.

Know how to register your “Start-Ups” in India

On January 16, 2016, the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi announced a new initiative called “Start-UpIndia” initiative, fostering the promotion of entrepreneurship by creating a system that is conducive for start-ups.

This initiative will provide budding entrepreneurs and experienced businessmen an easier access to funding and incubators by offering them an easy-to-use platform that can be downloaded on to any smartphone device.

However, if you are an Indian citizen, then you allowed to register about six to seven types of business entities in India, specifically, Private Limited Company (limited by shares), Public Limited Company (limited by shares), Public Company (with unlimited liabilities), Company limited by guarantee, Partnership firm, Sole Proprietorship firm and co-operatives as producer company. Non-Indians (foreigners) are allowed to register on a Private limited company (with 100% equities), Private limited company (a joint venture with Indians) and Public limited company (with a minimum of one shareholder and director of Indian citizen). You have to decide which business entity fulfills business expectations. The private limited company is preferred by almost all foreigners (individuals or entrepreneurs), because it has minimal agreement constraints, and it is one of the best choices if you do not have any intentions to raise public funds.

ROC staff will look for the the proposed names for availability or any resemblance with other company names in India. If they find it difficult to approve names that might create confusion in the minds of the public and harm the interest of the promoters, then you will be given up to two opportunities for re-submit the new panel of company names against the fee paid in the first instance for name availability after the original application is filled. Just in two days the name will be allotted for a company. If the name is not adopted within the given 60 days after it is allowed, you may apply for an extension for retention of such name for further period of 30 days on payment of 50% of the fees prescribed for the application at the initial stage. The name allowed shall lapse after the expiry of sixty or ninety days, as the case may be, from the date it is allowed first. If you agree to the allotted name, the “name allotment certificate” will be issued to you. This is called pre-registration process.

Further, after the pre- registration process or the “name allotment certificate” is obtained from the ROC, you have to prepare the Memorandum of Association (MOA) and Articles of Association (AOA) for the proposed company. The format and description are almost similar to other countries of the world. MOA mainly covers the primary, auxiliary and other business activities of the proposed firm. Moreover, AOA gives the guidelines for the standard operations and conduct of the proposed company along with the certified share capital, first directors or founding directors, the names and addresses of first directors and so on.

CoinproBiz Solutions has been established to provide exclusive services in the field of Company Registration, Intellectual Property Rights, Trademarking, CopyrightRegistration and allied services, with the help of specialized and experienced professionals from varied backgrounds such as Company Secretaries, Chartered Accountants, Corporate Lawyers and Business Professionals. We are dedicated to provide the best recommendations and execution for leading, middle market and emerging growth companies to promote their business.

In today’s fiercely competitive marketplace, Intellectual Property Law ensures that your business’ artistic rights are registered with and granted by the appropriate government agencies to protect investment in names, symbols and other representations used to identify your products and services.

Know How to Protect Your Logo

A great logo is like a diamond to your small business. It acts as your abbreviated calling card, summarizing your company’s beliefs, culture and quality without the need for any further explanation. It is not only the symbol but acts like an identity for your company.

One should always register their logo as a trademark in order to ensure that it is protected and that you are given the rights to actually use it. The elements which help the consumer to recognize your logo or to recognize a particular brand are its choice of words, catchy taglines, color, shape, and maybe smell.

Coming to what is a registered trademark, most importantly the owner of the registered trademark has several rights that are not obtained elsewhere.

• The right to allow others to use that trademark on the goods and services.

·         The owner has the right to take action against people found to be encroaching on these rights.

Some benefits are, you can even sell it if you want to add value to your business, or for adding professionalism to your business. Once a trademark is registered the owner may promote it as registered, including by use of the ^(®) symbol, which often conveys professionalism, trustworthiness, and longevity to consumers.

Tips for registering the Trademark:

• 1. Engaging with professional search companies to conduct trademark searches to ensure the name or logo is available

• 2. The authorities will examine the application and guide you whether the trademark is approved for registration or if there are issues standing in its way

• 3. If there are no problem in the way the mark will likely be sent to the opposition to allow other parties the opportunity to object

• 4. If there are no objections then your mark will be registered

Besides, more likely, the registration of the trademark lasts up to 10 after which it has to be renewed but it may vary accordingly to the country.

CoinproBiz Solutions has been established to provide exclusive services in the field of Company Registration, Intellectual Property Rights, Trademarking, Copyright Registration and allied services, with the help of specialized and experienced professionals from varied backgrounds such as Company Secretaries, Chartered Accountants, Corporate Lawyers and Business Professionals. We are dedicated to provide the best recommendations and execution for leading, middle market and emerging growth companies to promote their business.

In today’s fiercely competitive marketplace, Intellectual Property Law ensures that your business’ artistic rights are registered with and granted by the appropriate government agencies to protect investment in names, symbols and other representations used to identify your products and services.

The World Intellectual Property Organization.

WIPO stands as an abbreviation of ‘The World Intellectual Property Organization, is an especially dedicated agency of the United Nations. It is dedicated to developing a balanced and accessible international intellectual property (IP) system, which while safeguarding the public interest also rewards creativity, stimulates innovation and contributes to the economic development. WIPO was established in 1967 by the WIPO Convention. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.

In the year 1886, copyright entered the international arena with the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works to help nationals of its member States obtain international protection of their right to control, and receive payment for, the use of their creative works such as novels, short stories, poems, plays; songs, operas, musicals, sonatas; and drawings, paintings, sculptures, architectural works. Like the Paris Convention, the Berne Convention set up an International Bureau to carry out administrative tasks. In 1893, these two small bureaux united to form an international organization called the United International Bureau (BIRPI) for the Protection of Intellectual Property. The BIRPI indeed was the predecessor of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

With the growing importance of intellectual property, the structure and form of the Organization also changed. In 1960 BIRPI moved from Berne to Geneva to be closer to the United Nations and other international organizations in that city. A decade later, following the entry into force of the Convention.

Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, BIRPI became WIPO and in the year 1974, WIPO became a specialized agency of the United Nations system of organizations, with a mandate to administer intellectual property matters recognized by the member States of the UN.

CoinproBiz Solutions has been established to provide exclusive services in the field of Company Registration, Intellectual Property Rights, Trademark registration, Copyright Registration and allied services, with the help of specialized and experienced professionals from varied backgrounds such as Company Secretaries, Chartered Accountants, Corporate Lawyers and Business Professionals. 

Myths about using copyrighted material.

Understanding copyright law can be confusing for business owners, but the costs of infringing on another's copyright can be very high. Here are the biggest myths about making using copyrighted material.

1. Using a part of the song or text.

This is just false. There is no safe percentage or amount that can be used without obtaining permission from the copyright owner. If the content is copyrighted then the copyright owner can sue the user for even the smallest amount of use. If you are thinking that you can use a small amount of famous songs in your brand’s commercials, you are wrong and can get in serious trouble.

2. Copyrighting Idea.

Copyright protects "original works of authorship" in a tangible medium of expression. In other words, original books, musical compositions, movies and computer software are capable of copyright protection. So, unfortunately, ideas are not copyright-able.

3. Non-commercial usedoesn’t infringe copyright law.

There are a few exceptions that allow the use of a copyrighted material for educational purposes and parody. The fact that you are not making money is only one parameter, for example. If you are going to download a copyrighted book and publish it on the internet for free, then even though you are not going to make money out of it, it’s considered a copyright infringement as it damages the original work and owner.

4. If it doesn’t belong to a celebrity, it’s free from copyright constraints.

Wrong. All individuals have the right of publicity, or the right to control their name, voice, image, and likeness, regardless of whether or not they're a public figure. Each state has its own laws governing right of publicity, but most states provide statutory damages for violating an individual's right of publicity for commercial use. Make sure to have a release for anyone in the photo, as well as permission from the photographer (if you didn’t take the photo yourself.)

CoinproBiz Solutions has been established to provide exclusive services in the field of Company Registration, IntellectualProperty Rights, Trademark registration, Copyright Registration and allied services, with the help of specialized and experienced professionals from varied backgrounds such as Company Secretaries, Chartered Accountants, Corporate Lawyers and Business Professionals

Finding the proof points for your brand.

What makes a company unique? What makes a brand stand apart from the others? In discussing brand positioning, flesh out a product's or service's attributes -- the features or functions that make it all work.

Some marketers like to call this the USP or unique selling proposition. Other marketing gurus refer to it as the reason to believe or RTB. But to put it in simple words, this is the proof needed to substantiate the claims made for a company or brand.

Let’s take an example, you may have a claim that no other brands can make something as the fact that your product helps lower cholesterol 10 percent. Maybe your product's brand has been the subject of more clinical studies or maybe it has been on the market for a longer period than others. A proof point can also be related to a unique ingredient or methodology like “¼ moisturizing cream” from Dove.

Whatever it is that you want your brand to be identified for make sure that you own it. In any category, products tend to have very similar functional features and benefits. Which makes it extremely hard to position and differentiate a product on facts alone. This is why an effective positioning statement should appeal to the emotional side as well.

Be creative while making a proof point. That's what the whole positioning exercise is about. Don’t just say your product is made from all-natural ingredients, or all Indian raw material. That’s not going to help you in positioning or differentiating the brand in any manner. Rather you should explain the process by which you search and curate the product's natural -ingredients and how you've uniquely blended them together. Now you're on your way to make your brand stand apart from all the other brands in its category.

And it's not enough to say that you have studies to back your claims. Elaboration on how the studies were uniquely conducted to shed light on the product's proprietary formula is required to make it work more effectively. Stay factual and accurate to what’s true and ethical. But at the same time highlight the features that make your product unique and that only you can claim.

CoinproBiz Solutions has been established to provide exclusive services in the field of Company Registration, Intellectual Property Rights, Trademarkregistration, Copyright Registration and allied services, with the help of specialized and experienced professionals from varied backgrounds such as Company Secretaries, Chartered Accountants, Corporate Lawyers and Business Professionals. 

What to do when someone uses your trademark.

You have worked hard and brainstormed day and night to come up with the design and logo for your brand, so what can you do to prevent other companies from using it? What can you do to make sure that no one infringes your Intellectual property rights?

Well, it’s not exactly simple and trademark laws can confuse even the savviest business owners. The trademark act of 1999 lays out the foundation of trademark act. A trademark is a special symbol for distinguishing the goods offered for sale or otherwise put on the market by one trader from those of another. In India, the trademarks have been protected for over four decades as per the provisions of the Trade and Merchandise Mark (TMM) Act of 1958. India became a party to the WTO at its very inception. One of the agreements in that related to the Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). In December 1998 India acceded to the Paris Convention.

That’s what the act states, now let’s get back to the question, what to do when someone uses your trademark? 

·         Make sure if there actually is a trademark infringement.

Before diving into a lawsuit, you need to make sure if a problem actually exists. To do that, let’s review a few trademark facts,

First, trademark infringement occurs only when consumers are likely to be confused by the dual use of the trademark and whether the mark is being used on competing for goods and services.

The next factor to consider is the location. If you operate a flower shop in Delhi and someone opens a similarly named flower shop in Dehradun. This likely isn’t considered infringement because customers are highly unlikely to confuse both. Granted, if your business becomes famous across the country, you may have a greater chance of claiming infringement regardless of location. 

Another often-confused aspect of trademark law is that names can infringe on one another even if they aren’t identical. Courts often consider “sight, sound and meaning” when determining if two marks are similar. So adding an "s" to make a name plural isn’t enough to distinguish it. Or try to name your fast food restaurant “McDowell’s,” and you’ll quickly see that marks don’t need to be identical to cause infringement. 

·        Take action.

If you believe that the other name is a) being used on competing goods and services b) customers would likely be confused by the two names and c) the other name is being used in your same geographic region, then you should take action.

The first step is to contact an attorney specializing in trademark law. He or she will help you through the next steps.

Trademark issues typically begin by sending a cease-and-desist letter to the infringing business and demanding that they stop using your mark. If the alleged infringer continues to use your trademark after receiving your letter, possible remedies include preventing further use of the mark in addition to money damages. You can ask the court to have the infringer pay you any money they made as a result of the infringement as well as any damages that your business may have suffered as a result of the infringement.

·         But the most important thing is to file a trademark beforehand.

Too often, small-business owners don’t think about trademarks until it is too late, and they see someone else using their company or product name. At that point, it becomes a fight over who owns the name and who was using it first. Therefore, put yourself in the best possible position by applying for your trademark early on. This is why the most important step in trademark protection is applying for your trademark as soon as possible.

CoinproBiz Solutions has been established to provide exclusive services in the field of Company Registration, Intellectual Property Rights, Trademarkregistration, Copyright Registration and allied services, with the help of specialized and experienced professionals from varied backgrounds such as Company Secretaries, Chartered Accountants, Corporate Lawyers and Business Professionals.