You built it, so feeling protective about your enterprise is only natural. It’s fairly easy to protect your physical business and even your online activities. However, intellectual property is another story. Understanding how to safeguard copyrights, patents, and trademarks is an essential part of doing business. In this article, we will explain what trademarks are and why you may need them.
Trademarks as Intellectual Property
Many companies develop and maintain intellectual property. Sometimes the value of intellectual property is hard to pin down but make no mistake – it’s crucial to protect your copyrights, patents, and trademarks.
Generally, copyrights protect “original works of authorship.” Patents, on the other hand, safeguard certain new designs and inventions. So, you might get a copyright for a white paper or e-book you wrote for your industry. You might also apply for a patent for your new widget design.
But what about trademarks?
People may be less familiar with what defines a trademark even though we are surrounded by them every day.
- Words and phrases
- Names
- Symbols
- Devices, like colors and sounds
- Combinations of words, names, symbols, and devices
For example, you might own a company that manufactures mountain bikes. Your bikes have a particular look, and you have even applied for a patent to protect your ingenious designs. A distinctive logo and eye-catching ads help define your company to consumers. A trademark could help prevent competitors from copying your logo, ads, photographs, and catchphrases and using them to confuse consumers.
So, What Does a Trademark Do?
Trademarks typically achieve two things:
- Identifying where a product originated; and
- Protecting “source-identifying and quality-designating functions.”
Consumers identify your trademarks with your company and your products. People may come to expect certain things from your products over your competitors. Your trademarks help people find your products. That’s why it is sometimes so important to prevent competitors from capitalizing on your hard work.
For example, your mountain bike company’s logo is well-known. When people see that logo, they can identify quickly where the bike came from and who manufactured it. However, a competitor may use a logo that is so similar that people do not realize they are not buying your product. Obviously, you can lose sales. But your reputation may also suffer if people think a competitor’s inferior product is yours.
Registering Your Company Trademarks Provides Important Protection
You can register a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and/or the Florida Secretary of State’s office. First, talk to an attorney about your trademark. In fact, your attorney might conduct a search before applying to make sure similar marks are not already in use.
Also, you may be able to take action against someone who infringes on your trademark.
Attorney Richard Sierra at the Florida Small Business Center assists clients like you with business and litigation matters. As always, Our Goal Is to Help You Succeed™. For an appointment, you may call us at 1-866-842-5202 or use the contact form on our website. From our Coral Springs office, we represent clients throughout the State of Florida.