Registering a trade mark, why bother?

You’ve been lucky enough to secure your preferred company name, business name and domain name, and with that you’re ready to launch your business. All too often, we see start-up businesses failing to register a trade mark at the same time, but it’s just as important to secure. Why?

Let’s start with the basics first. A trade mark is essentially a brand – it distinguishes the goods and services offered by one business from other businesses. It is how consumers come to identify a business. Think a brand name or logo, these are types of trade marks. A trade mark is also an intellectual property right which can be registered under law via a government body known as IP Australia, and with that registration comes stronger legal protection for your trade mark compared to if it’s unregistered.

The benefits of registering a trade mark in Australia include:

• Legal protection for your brand – You will have the exclusive right to use your brand and licence its use to third parties, in connection with the goods and services that you offer. A company, business or domain name does not provide you with any of these rights.
• Fending off brand copycats – The exclusive use rights afforded by your registered trade mark can be relied on to prevent competitors from capitalising on the goodwill and reputation associated with your brand, through using the same or deceptively similar brand.
• Freedom to operate – You will have a statutory defence to infringing anyone else’s registered trade mark in Australia by using your own. This effectively means that a registered trade mark provides the owner with the freedom to operate in the market using their trade mark.
• Asset value – A registered trade mark is a valuable business asset which can appreciate over time as your business grows. Also, it enhances your business’ attractiveness to investors and potential buyers, as those parties are more likely to invest in a business which has already secured exclusive rights in its brand.

What happens if you don’t register your trade mark? You might be lucky enough to never encounter an issue. Or, one of these scenarios might happen:

• Your brand has already been registered as a trade mark by somebody else, which means you can’t secure exclusive rights to use your brand despite all the time and effort put into building it. Worse yet, you might be infringing the already-registered trade mark.
• If you’re infringing someone else’s registered trade mark and they find out about it, they could rely on the exclusive rights afforded by their registration to demand that your business rebrand and pay compensation. Rebranding means losing all the goodwill and reputation built up in your existing brand, and having to educate the market about a rebrand, not to mention the costs and inconvenience associated with changing your website, socials, product packaging.
• A competitor starts using a similar brand name and you are concerned that consumers might confuse the brands. Without a registered trade mark in your arsenal, your legal rights to stop the competitor are much more limited.
• If you seek investment or sell your business without a registered trade mark, the value proposition to investors and purchasers is reduced because you don’t have exclusive rights in using your brand. Ask yourself – what are they buying if the brand isn’t legally protected? Worse yet, investors and purchasers might not even want to deal with if you haven’t been savvy with protecting your IP.

All in all, registering your trade mark is a no-brainer. So what are you waiting for? Contact us to discuss how we can help with protecting your brand.