Your brand is a property and in this era of cut-throat competition and ever-increasing brands, one has to protect their property. Since you have put so much effort in expanding your business, developing customer relationships and establishing a brand, it is imperative that you save your hard work with a trademark.
What is a Trademark?
A trademark is a word, phrase, letter, number, sound, smell, shape, logo, picture, aspect of packaging or a combination of these to distinguish your products from your competitors and allows you to use the ® mark.
A registered trademark, gives you the exclusive legal right to use, license and sell it in the country where you have registered it. It prevents unscrupulous operators from using your intellectual property.
How Much Do Trademarks Cost?
You can register your trademark by nominating your product or service in a class (a class categorizes your trademark). for example, A pharmaceutical company has to register under CLASS 5.
Use the links below for more trademark information and registration forms:
| Country | Organization |
| United States | United States Patent and Trademark Office |
| Canada | Canadian Intellectual Property Office |
| Europe | European Trade Marks Office |
| United Kingdom | The UK Patent Office |
| China | China Trademark Office |
| Japan | Japanese Patent Office |
| France | Institut National de la Propriete Industrielle |
| Germany | German Patent and Trade Mark Office |
| Brazil | Brazilian Industrial Property Office |
| India | Office of the Controller General of Patents |
| Australia | IP Australia |
Global Trademarks
Unfortunately, there are no global trade marks. Most countries have their own Intellectual Property registers although many countries have mutual agreements with other countries where trade marks registered in one country are also recognized in the other one.
Service Marks
Service marks are the same as trademarks, except that they identify and distinguish the source of a service rather than a product. In many countries, a trademark is used to describe both.