Definition of Trademark
A Trademark exclusively identifies a product as a belonging to a specific business which is recognizable from its logos, colours, symbols, phrases, sound, scent or words. Registering a Trademarks not only guarantee its exclusiveness but also signifies familiarity of a brand within its features that being registered with. This certainly be a good promotional support material to be easily remembered and known globally.
Having a registered mark prevents others from using marks that quite resembles to the registered ones that can lead to infringement. Thus, mark owner has full autonomy upon their mark which carries their brand without having to worry someone might come out with substantially similar mark.
Determine the Type of Your Mark
They are various element of a brand that can be protected as a Trademark. Thus, before registering your Trademark, it is important to identify which mark you want to protect. Failure to assess your mark could have waste you so much time in getting your IP to be registered in accordance with the right procedure.
Most of the time, it can be quite inundated. One way of seeking for help is by referring to an IP expert to specify its category and determine if your mark have gone too generic. The good reasons are, it allows you to comprehend and foresee the avoidable blunders while ease the process from the beginning up until Trademark is finally granted. Within their expertise, it’ll assist you to assess suitable type of Trademark and provide alternate ways to monetize your mark as well as commercialize the exclusivity. It’s best to register your Trademark now then eventually regret of its long process of waiting and enough for someone to register it first.
To ease your searching here are list of references to distinguish types of Trademarks
1. Word Mark – Made up of unique letters & numerals that instantly recognize as a brand.
2. Device/Figurative Mark – A Mark that lies in the unique representation of a word, letter or numeral that serve as an easy visual to be recognized.
3. “Service Mark – Used to identify a service rather than a product. The standard registration symbol will consist of”.
4. Collective Marks – Owned by an organization (such as an association) and symbolizes the services they featured.
5. Certification Marks – Certification marks are used to define a standard which function as an assurance to the certain prescribed standards.
6. Well-Known Marks – When a mark is easily recognised by a large percentage of population it achieves the status of a well-known mark.
7. Colour Mark – Indicate an exclusive shade of colour which become a distinctive feature of the goods/services, can be registered as a trademark.
8. Sound Mark – Sound that is distinguish by their distinctive and exclusive hearing can be registered as a sound mark.
9. Scent Mark – When the smell is distinctive or being represented graphically and cannot be mistaken for an associated product it can be registered as a smell mark.
10. Shape Trademark – Shape trademark protects a shape in relation to goods and services, including the shape of the packaging.
11. Series Mark – A series of trademarks which resemble each other as to their material particulars and differ only as to matters of a non-distinctive character not substantially affecting the identity of the trademark.
12. House Mark/Brand/Product Mark – A House of Brands is home to numerous brands, each independent of one another, and each with its own audience, marketing, look and feel.
Although there isn’t a specific deadline for registering a trademark, but it’ll become as important as it should be when you started to realize you can never be certain that it belongs to you until you file them immediately. When somebody registers the marks that may resembles to yours, this is the last thing you wanted to risk yourself and get embroiled in litigation which potentially having you to lose your trademark or might have require you to rebrand your business. Should you be keen to know more, we are here to guide you.
This article is brought to you by Exy Intellectual Property Sdn Bhd.