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Brand Protection -Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid

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Why is Branding Important?

Branding is vital to the survival of almost any online business. Branding includes the thoughts and emotions that are triggered in the consumer when they see your product or interact with your brand. Another reason why branding is important is that brand names, and logos are brand ambassadors for your business. Brand protection for brand names, symbols, slogans, and even color, includes the trademarks one protects as registered trademarks. They are how the public remembers your business, and if wisely chosen, serve to help your business stand out from the crowd and be seen and heard.

Secure brand protection with registered trademarks that provide cyber security for intangible business assets. Online business entrepreneurs face threats from hacking, identity theft,  theft of trade secrets as well as copyrighted content. Brand names also face online business threats such as infringing domain names around the world, infringements on third-party website infringements, typosquatting, social media theft of trademarks, and more. Evidence of brand protection in the form of registered trademarks is required for full participation in online marketplaces such as Amazon Brand Registry, and in order to enforce rights in social media platforms.

Brand Protection Includes Trademark Protection

You’re a genius! You’ve come up with the most original, mind-blowing, market-shattering brand name imaginable – and you’re already getting it out there with marketing materials, through your network, on the web. All that’s left is to SECURE trademark protection.

Not so fast. Are you sure your brand name is well-positioned for trademark registration and protection? Check yourself against these top 10 Branding Mistakes from our contributing trademark experts at Hodgson Legal to confirm you’re really the genius you think you are.

Avoid these branding mistakes, that become brand protection mistakes.

1. Selection and use of a trademark without conducting an adequate proper search and investigation.

Failure to properly investigate prior to use can be considered evidence of bad faith if sued.

2. Failure to develop a brand strategy in the market that includes trademark search reports as a tool to position the brand in the market with a clear brand protection strategy.

A trademark is a shield and a sword. Stake out your turf and fence it in.

3. Adoption and use of a descriptive trademark or generic trademark make legal protection difficult.

Terms which describe the goods or services, or the characteristics or qualities of your goods and services are not registerable.

4. Improper Trademark Use in advertising and marketing leading to loss of rights.

Brands should be used as adjectives, not verbs or nouns for the goods or services.

5. Trademark applications that claim goods and services that are either too narrow, or overbroad, leading to increased risks of rejection.

Do it yourself, but only if you understand what you are doing, up to 80% of all filings receive a rejection from the Trademark Office.

6. Failure to seek trademark protection for personal names when used to market products and services.

An individual’s name should be registered  when used for goods and services.

7. The mistaken belief that trademark registration is sufficient to SUSTAIN trademark protection.

A registration certificate is just evidence of ownership, not the assets that require ongoing management just like any other asset.

8. Failure to monitor trademark use by new third-party entrants into the market.

Snooze and you lose. Trademark rights are lost if the term becomes a generic trademark, e.g, aspirin, cellophane, escalator.

9. Confusing a domain name registration as a substitute for trademark protection for goods and services.

Clients have lost their domains and been sued because they failed to register a trademark for the goods and services.

10. Failure to maintain and renew registrations as required resulting in cancellation of rights.

Clients who treat registration as a commodity often fail to file necessary documents to maintain registrations.

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