Trademark matters can be overwhelming for startups. According to a recent EU study, only a small minority, about 9%, of SMEs in the EU have protected any intellectual property despite it dramatically improving their performance. You can read more about that here. Here’s a simple list to help you get on the right path. […]
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The European Patent Office (EPO) and the European Trademark Office (EUIPO) have published a new study titled “Intellectual property rights and firm performance in the European Union”. The study examines the prevalence of IP rights (IP rights included in the study were limited to patents, trademarks and designs) in European companies and the performance of […]
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Yesterday it was reported that Volkswagen’s electric vehicles will be sold under the brand name “Voltswagen” in the US. There’s also speculation as to whether this is an April Fool’s Day joke. Many sources are now saying that the change is for real. We think the change is unlikely to happen, at least in the […]
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Our previous post dealt with why it is beneficial to use a trademark attorney. Nonetheless, many startups and SMEs file their own trademark applications. If you know what you are doing, then great. The problem is that many people think they know what they are doing, or that if they don’t know enough about trademarks, […]
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Making a trademark application is not difficult. Simply fill in all the required data, submit and pay the government fee. Making a trademark application does not mean that your brand is or will be properly protected. It’s like building a house. You might be able to do it, but you won’t know how well it […]
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An effective intellectual property protection regime is essential for the functioning of the music industry. For the artistic side, copyright protection is essential for artists and labels. Copyright protects lyrics, melodies, arrangements, recordings, performances, and so on. Music performers are aptly called “artists”, and copyright protects “works of art”. Trademarks are also important. While copyright […]
Read more »We often get comments from clients saying that they have already checked that their trademark is available. Almost always this is based on a misunderstanding of how trademarks work. Typically when a prospective client says that they have already checked that the trademark is available, they have made a Google search checking that nobody uses […]
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It has been estimated that there are over 500 million blogs. Many of them have large readerships and tremendous commercial value. Like any other services, blogs can be protected with trademarks. Protecting the blog’s name as a trademark brings many benefits. For example, if you protect the name, you may be able to prevent others […]
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Sometimes big companies register trademarks that they do not use or intend to use. The logic is that by doing that, they can enhance the protection their brand has. Is it allowed? What are the risks? Can it be done? What are defensive registrations? Defensive trademarks have two main types. The first type is registering […]
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It is generally not possible to get exclusive rights to a descriptive name. If the trademark is descriptive, it is not distinctive and cannot be registered (unless it has acquired distinctiveness through use). What are descriptive names? Descriptive names are names that somehow describe the products or services in question, especially: kind (type of goods […]
Read more »Distinctiveness is very important. If your trademark is not sufficiently distinctive, it cannot be registered.
Check the distinctiveness of your trademark with a simple test.
