And that’s probably the best-case scenario. If someone else has a logo so similar to yours that it can be mistaken for you, and you haven’t registered it as a trademark, then it could be confusing for your customers, and the other business will get to enjoy the benefits of all the time, effort and money you’ve spent building your brand. That’s its primary purpose – not to communicate what you do, but to help people recognise you. Your logo is what identifies you to the market. The more successful your business becomes, the more valuable your logo is, and the more damaging the consequences of failing to protect it will be. (The ® symbol, on the other hand, can only be legally placed next to trademarks that are actually registered.)īut the risks are significant. It’s basically just a way of bluffing anyone who might be thinking of stealing it. That’s not illegal, even if the trademark itself will have no actual protection under IP law. You can even add a ™ symbol to your product labels without actually registering it. If you’re happy to take the risks that come with failing to protect your logo, you can choose to do that – and indeed, some start-ups choose to do exactly that, until they see their brand as having a value that’s worth protecting. Strictly speaking, you’re not legally obliged to register your logo as a trade mark. So if you register your logo as a trade mark, for instance, other businesses won’t be able to use that logo in an attempt to ‘pass off’ their product or service as yours. Once a trademark is registered, you have the exclusive rights to use, license and sell it. On the other hand, the shape of a new ergonomic chair aboard that plane would be a design. IP Australia, who are responsible for registering trademarks in Australia, give the example of the flying red kangaroo on the tail of Qantas planes – that’s a trademark. A trademark can even be a sound, a scent, a particular way that your product is packaged, or a combination of any of these things. Virtually anything can be a trademark – your logo can be a trademark, sure, but so can a word, phrase, letter or number that you want people to associate with your business. Designs have to be new to be registered, whereas trademarks don’t.Ī trademark is your brand identity. Designs are subject to their own intellectual property (IP) laws, which refer specifically to the shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation of a particular product. Legally, it’s not even considered a design. It’s not a business name, which has to be registered with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). For that matter, your logo is automatically copyrighted when it’s created, and that copyright most likely belongs to the graphic designer who worked on it, so you’ll want to make sure they transfer that copyright over to you. It’s not a copyright, which is created automatically as soon as a particular work – like a movie, a book, or even this article – is created. The easiest way to understand what a trademark is might be to understand what a trademark is not. A trademark is, essentially, a form of brand protection that sets your business apart from your competitors.
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