How Trademark Protection Enhance Brand Growth and Recognition?

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), trademark protection implies the exclusive right of a trademark owner to use the mark and rights they obtain as its holder which can be reinforced in numerous ways. A business can use its trademark (any phrase, word, logo, symbol, or packaging design) across various activities including advertising, e-commerce, business management, and marketing.

In the United States, trademark registration is handled by the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office). However, in case someone wishes to register their trademark in multiple countries at the same time, they can use the Madrid System which is a WIPO’s centralized trademark application process.

This comprehensive blog highlights the role of trademarks in driving business growth and enhancing brand recognition, along with brief insights into the Madrid system of WIPO.

What is the Madrid System under Trademark Protection?

Imagine a corporation that intends to expand its business to Australia, Canada, and Japan, all at once. However, the entity is worried about its brand name and its specialized product becoming a target of counterfeiting and trademark offenders. To tackle this, the business considered applying for trademark registration in each of these countries, navigating through their regulatory process of registration and other pivotal requirements. Soon it realized how cumbersome it could be to apply in each country, meet each of their standards, pay the varying fees, and submit documents that are not so easy to compile and furnish.

The Madrid trademark system, administrated by the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) resolves this issue and provides a centralized system where a person can use a single application to obtain trademark protection in multiple countries. The system governed by the Madrid Agreement (1891) transformed the way of obtaining trademark certificates, by cutting down the overall costs and time that would have gone into preparing and filing numerous applications in each of the countries.

To apply for a trademark under the Madrid system, the applicant is mandated to first have it registered (or pending registration) in its regional or national jurisdiction. Thus, it emphasizes the fact that in case someone from India wishes to apply for an international trademark, he/she must have applied for or registered their trademark in India first. In addition, the trademark element must be the same on both international applications and the one already/about to get registered in the home country.

Applicants must check their eligibility before proceeding with the application. For instance, only those nationals or residents can apply for international trademarks under the Madrid system whose country is a signatory to the system. In addition, the IP office of each member of the system performs an examination of the application to determine whether it should grant or refuse the trademark protection. The time limit for this is from 12 to 18 months.

A wordmark safeguards the word, letter, or numerals of a brand with no protection provided to its design or graphical elements. Such trademarks do not consider how the element is presented or designed. For instance, if a company registers its wordmark ‘ABC Ltd’, only the term will receive protection, not the specific font or color used. On the other hand, a design mark trademark takes a more comprehensive approach, protecting not just the text but also the visual elements like typography, color, shape, composition, layout, and other design features. To apply trademark online, businesses can easily navigate the process and ensure their brand’s unique visual identity is properly safeguarded.

Role of Trademark Protection in Enhancing Brand Growth

Brand growth refers to strengthening of brand’s presence in the market. It makes the products or services of the business more visible, create strong customer relationships, and increase the popularity of the brand. Trademark registration helps in driving business growth due to the following reasons:

• Establish Legal Ownership: The trademark registration provides exclusive rights over their proposed mark, allowing owners to use it in relation to specific goods and services. This prevents others from using the same trademark such as a particular symbol or a catchy logo. It prevents the risk of any confusion that can hamper the sales, market share, and customer base of the business.
• Prevent Unauthorized Use: Trademark registration ensures that nobody uses the registered mark without prior approval from the owner. In case someone infringes or imitates the mark to deliberately deceive the customers or steal the popularity of the brand to drive its sales, the infringer can attract an infringement suit against him and other legal charges causing it to pay a hefty amount to compensate for the damages.
• Improve Brand Identity: Trademarks shape the perception of customers and communicate the brand’s value, vision, and practices to key stakeholders including customers. A trademark helps in marketing and deepening connections by allowing the business to endorse its brand in sponsoring events, packaging, websites, social media platforms, and meetups. This in turn improves the brand identity and enhances business sales and revenue.
• Deter Imitation: By registering the trademark, brands can eliminate the risk of duplicity of their mark. The registration ensures that no individual or corporation illicitly benefits from the established goodwill and reputation of another brand. Trademarks protect both the customers and the brand from counterfeit and fake products by allowing them to take legal recourse.

How Tech Innovations Are Shaping Brand Name Registration? Integration of technology has streamlined the trademark search, a crucial step in the registration process that identifies whether the proposed mark can be used by the business without infringing on other existing marks. The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning has allowed the business to register its brand name in a seamless and quicker manner. In addition, chatbots are helping applicants to resolve their queries in just one tap.

How Trademark Registration Increase Brand Recognition?

Brand recognition refers to how well and easily a customer is able to identify a specific brand through its logos, colors, jingles, packaging, taglines, or other trademarked element. A business plan and execute several strategies to strengthen brand recognition, a key aspect in increasing brand loyalty, and sales, command price mechanism, and gain competitive advantage over others. Trademark registration contributes to increasing brand recognition with the help of the following features:

• Build Brand Identity: A distinct trademark (word, letter, slogan, logo, packaging, or shape of the object) conveys the brand’s essence and helps customers to recognize the brand with ease. This solidifies the market presence of the company and helps it stand out from competitors, creating a distinct brand identity and enhancing brand recognition.
• Differentiate Goods and Services: Trademarks act as an effective marketing and communication tool. The registration ensures that the brand is distinct, unique, and recognizable in a crowded marketplace. Through meaningful logos or creative jingles, a brand communicates its vision and idea and allows the creation of a deeper connection between the organization and its customers.
• Foster Trust and Credibility: As the business progresses, the registered trademark becomes a mark of quality assurance and demonstrates that the business is secure and reliable to connect with. Trademark reflects the brand’s reputation across all platforms and turns into a symbol of authenticity, playing a key role in demonstrating the credibility of the business.

How Brand Name Registration Boosts Business Credibility? Brand name registration secures the trademark certification and helps boost the credibility of the business by demonstrating the brand’s authenticity, reliability, quality of its goods or services, and commitment to adhering to best practices. It builds a distinct identity and assures customers of its reliability and consistency.

Conclusion

To apply trademark online in India, applicants have to choose a unique mark and register as a new user on the IP India portal to initiate the registration process. It is imperative to identify which class the chosen trademark falls into out of 45 available classes of goods and services. Moving forward, the applicant is then suggested to conduct a thorough trademark search either by itself or through the trademark attorney they have hired to act on their behalf in the regulatory process. The search will help brands identify that they do not choose a mark that is the same or deceptively similar to an already registered one.

A trademark can be a word, letter, phrase, or graphic. Logo, number, sound mark, some specific color, or a combination of any of these. To pick a trademark, applicants must ensure that it is not generic, offensive, or descriptive. A scandalous or derogatory mark, or trademark that is based on a common person’s name, geographical location, or mark that lacks distinctiveness, will become ineligible to be proposed as a valid mark during application. Connect with the trademark professionals of Legal Raasta to understand the complex nuances of trademark regulations and obtain your trademark registration certification with personalized and quality legal services.