A trademark can be more valuable to a company than the majority of its clients. Large companies that have built their brand names with millions of dollars in advertising and hours upon hours of hard work go to great lengths to protect themselves from trademark infringement. Why should a small business shy away from protecting itself?
If some company improperly uses your trademark and then produces inferior quality goods it can lessen the brand value for your company. In addition, if a larger company steals your trademark, consumers may think the theft was the other way around since you are the smaller enterprise. In the end, actively policing your trademark’s safety is the only way to ensure your brand stays clear of infringement.
A few tips for protecting your trademark and your brand:
1. Hire a watch service
A trademark watch service does just that. They will actively and continually monitor all activity that has to do with your mark in order to prevent brand dilution. Watch services will mine through trademark registries to find copy cats or ones that are too similar. Remember trademarks are territorially based, meaning that just because you registered in the United States does not mean you are protected in France.
2. Lawyer up from the beginning
Some small businesses attack trademark violators only to find that they are not the original creators of the trademark to begin with. To avoid such costly and embarrassing situations, you should hire a trademark attorney to ensure that the mark will be legally yours from the beginning. Trying to settle things up in the end always ends up being more costly.
3. Be cautious in protecting yourself
Creating cease and desist letters is not the easiest endeavor. Seek professional help from an attorney who deals with these issues regularly. At times a cease and desist letter may not even be necessary. While in other situations, the wording of a letter sent out could be potentially harmful to the letter writer.
4. Do a little on your own
The overall majority of the protection for your trademark should be left up to professional services: lawyers and watch services for example. But it cannot hurt for you to do some self monitoring in your own. There are services such as Google Alerts that will notify you every time it sees your mark appears in the news or the web. Note that Google Alerts should not be your only method of protection and does not substitute for a lawyer or professional watch service, only as a supplement.
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