Before choosing a name, brand or applying for a trademark registration, a trademark search should be conducted. While this is optional, it alerts you of potentially confusing trademarks and thus saves you the cost of additional fees, including the costs of an opposition (i.e. a “abridged court-like proceeding” before the Canadian Intellectual Property Office) defending a trademark infringement litigation suit changing your name and stationery as well as having to inform your customers/suppliers that you are “re-branding”. This oversight can be both expensive and embarrassing. A trademark search should cover names which are similar to or the same as your…

Brand recognition attracts paying customers and increases market access. A registered trademark is an asset by itself that can be worth billions. Google®, Yahoo® and The Body Shop® were unknown small businesses not so long ago. For instance, many family enterprises choose trademark registration as a means to safeguard the family name that has become widely associated with a product or service. A trademark registration protects your domain name and acts as a sword against copycats. In addition, if you want to franchise a business or license a product/service, it pays to have a government granted monopoly upon which you…

The success of your product or service today depends on the degree to which your trademark is distinctive from your competitors by use of a specific logo, brand, design, or technology. In other words, ask yourself how your trademark ‘stands out in the crowd?’. Protecting your branding/intellectual property with a trademark registration from imitation by competitors is key. In addition to distinguishing and protecting, the objective of a trademark registration is to act as a business tool to enhance the value of your business. You can even reserve a trademark before you use it by applying to register the trademark…

Whether you are a Canadian company looking to sell your products or services abroad or a foreign company seeking to do business in Canada, identifying and protecting your intellectual property rights, such as trademark rights, that are associated with your products or services will mean the difference between profits and losses. This is where a trademark lawyer’s services may be of help. By applying for a trademark registration, you are staking your claim in your target markets to safeguard your sales and reputation from competitors or other imitators. Once you have applied for a trademark registration in Canada, you can,…

A trademark speaks to your brand, or how your business is identified by the public. If you value your business, product or service name, you are probably making a serious business mistake if you are using it without a trademark registration. Every company in Canada, or that does business here, with a name, product name, service name, slogan or logo has one or more trademarks. A trademark is not just an identifier; it is also your seal of quality as seen by your customers. Therefore, if you have a business or corporate name, according to Industry Canada/Corporations Canada, “Registration of…

A trademark and a trade or company name are not the same. Having only a trade or corporate name (either federally or provincially) does not necessarily mean that you own the name, are entitled to use it exclusively or prevent others from using confusingly similar names across Canada. In fact, rather than being an asset, a trade or corporate name by itself may represent a serious liability to your business as your business could encounter trademark infringement litigation. In Canada, trademark infringement occurs when the use of another word/symbol is likely to give the impression to the public that the…

A trademark is: a word, (coca-cola ®) a symbol a logo a design (Burberry pattern) an internet address (ollip.com) a phone number (Pizza Pizza’s 737-1111) a shape/mode of wrapping  ® colour applied to a surface (UPS outfit) a combination that distinguishes the goods and/or services of one person from that of another in the marketplace. A trademark is different from a trade name. A trade name is the name by which a business identifies itself. This may also be a corporate name such as OLLIP P.C. A trademark is part of the umbrella of creative rights known as intellectual property,…