TO PROTECT
BRAND / LOGO
Protecting your logo as a brand
Do you want itlogowith which your company operates on the market offers optimal protection, then it is best to apply for a trademark registration for youbrand name. Successfully going through this procedure gives you aexclusive right of useand takes care of theprotectionfrom youintellectual ownership.Ittrademark lawis very important and you must respect this at all times.
What is a logo?
A logo is actually onelogo. This form of a trademark, unlike a brand name, ispresented visually. It is a kind of icon, a graphic representation with which your brand is associated.
Many companies have bothbrand namelike alogounder which they market their products. These forms of intellectual property are often an important part of the company's assets. To ensure optimal protection of the brand, a company can deposit both the logo and the brand name. The same requirements are linked to the registration of a logo as to the registration of a brand name.
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How can I protect my logo?
Protection of a figurative mark is regulated by thetrademark law. As with all other types of trademarks, you do not simply acquire exclusive rights to the logo through its mere use. To protect your logo as intellectual property, you mustifregister trademark.
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A trademark right confers aexclusive righton the registered trademark. This means that the trademark owner is the only one who has the right to use this trademark. You can find more information about privacy by designherefind.
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Registering a trademark yourself can be a difficult and above alltime consumingbecome a matter. Moreover, there are numerous details to take into account that can often be an obstacle for entrepreneurs who do not have many years of legal experience.
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More information about the benefits of successful trademark registration and its legal consequences can be found in this post by Mr. Franklin.
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How do I register a trademark?
You can file a trademark with various trademark offices, depending on the desired territorial scope of protection. You can opt for a national, Benelux or international trademark registration. Your trademark is protected immediately after registration.
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Trademark registration in the Benelux
You can register both your logo and brand name with the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP).
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Trademark registration in the European Union
As the name suggests, a Benelux trademark is protected in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. A European trademark, on the other hand, also grants protection in all other countries that are members of the European Union. This is registered by the European trademark office (European Union Intellectual Property Office).
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International registration and protection outside the EU
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There is also the possibility to protect your trademark in countries that are not members of the European Union. If you want to register your logo as an international trademark and thus obtain broader international protection, you have the choice to either carry out a series of national filings in the countries concerned, or to complete the international procedure with the World Intellectual Property Organization. (the so-called Madrid Protocol). Actually, this is a kind of combination of different national trademark registrations through one procedure.
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When applying for an international registration, it is important to:right of priorityto be mindful. You can find more information about this in this article by Mr. Franklin.
Why choose Mr. Franklin?
We are a law firm with aspecial expertise in trademark law. Transparency about costs remains our priority during our cooperation. We work with as much as possiblefixed rates and subscription formulasso you don't get any surprises.
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If Mr. Franklin we stand by youthroughout the procedureof trademark registration, butalso afterwards: legal support remains important in every phase of entrepreneurship. Therefore, please contact us so that we can look together at how your logo or brand name can be legally protected.
How long does my trademark right remain valid?
Once your trademark is registered, it lasts forevervalid for ten years. Please note: if you do not use the logo for five years, your trademark right will expire.
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A brand is infinitely renewable. In practice, you can therefore (once registered) protect your trademark for life.
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Is every logo covered by intellectual property?​
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As mentioned earlier, one canlogobe protected aslogo. We briefly explain the most important conditions that a trademark must meet, so that you can register it successfully.
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A more detailed overview of the protection conditions for trademarks can be found in this blog post by Mr. Franklin.
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Distinctiveness
Every brand (and therefore every logo) must have onedistinctivenessto have. The logo under which your company markets products or services must be able to ensure that the public can access these products and servicesto separateof any other similar product on the market. Your logo may therefore not be associated with products and services from another manufacturer.
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Admissibility
A logo mustpermissibleare. For example, trademark law determines a number of situations in which a trademark can never be declared valid. You will find a non-limited overview of them in our next article.
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Clear display
A trademark must be able to be represented in the register on aaccurateandclear way. This should not normally be a problem for a logo, because it is already a visual representation of a brand. For other types of marks (for example, a mark containing sounds) this may be less obvious.
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For more information about different types of brands and associated complications, we would like to refer you to this article by Mr. Franklin.
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Availability
By this protection condition, the legislator means that there is not yet anyidenticalorsimilar brand for similar products or servicesmay be registered in the trademark register.
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At Mr. Franklin we like to feed onenovelty searchahead of you. This investigation proceeds as follows: we screen each relevant trademark register for identical or similar trademarks that have already been filed in the past and that arepotential legal discussionscan care. We prepare a risk analysis of this. This analysis report is partly based on our extensive experience in trademark law. That way you can decide with full knowledge of the facts whether you still want to register the logo.
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Do you choose onerebrandingto avoid any discussions, you can still visit ourlegal assistancearithmetic.
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Suppose that an identical or a substantially similar trademark has already been registered, then the proprietor can register aopposition procedureagainst your application for trademark registration.
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If your logo can be successfully registered, you will have aopposition procedurecan start against the registration of an identical or similar logo. mr. Franklin is happy to assist you with this. Through oursubscription formulayou can have us monitor every relevant register once your trademark has been registered. Suppose a new trademark is requested that closely resembles your logo, we will send you a message with abrief analysisand uslegal advice. This way you can easily make oneinformed choiceto act or not.
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