Trademark Registration for Startups | 7 Reasons to do it NOW

 

Any startup should register its trademarks and designs since they increase its value and competitiveness. 

 

Startups with limited resources may only grow and compete with established firms by identifying and protecting their intellectual property rights. 

 

Customers are overloaded in today's technologically advanced environment and are constantly exposed to trademarks in our everyday lives. 

 

Think of names like Band-Aid, Super-Glue, Jacuzzi, Chapstick, and Pampers, to name a few; consumers instinctively associate these trademarks with real products rather than with their specific marks or brands.

 

However, the monopolistic relationship between brand and product did not support these businesses. 

 

In addition to coming up with a name, design, sign, or expression that was relatable to their product concepts, they also registered their intellectual property as trademarks. 

 

It raises more questions about how brands might help entrepreneurs and the long-term benefits of trademark registration online. 

 

What are the benefits of a trademark, and how can you trademark a name?

 

Here Are 7 Reasons Why Trademarks Are Crucial for New Startups:

 

1. Promoting Brand Recognizability

Startups can protect their brand through trademarking. 

 

By protecting a firm or organization's name as a trademark, one can differentiate their goods and services from those of their rivals, strengthening their intellectual property. 

 

By doing this, it stops rivals from stealing or replicating their brand.

 

2. Promotes Employee Attraction

Startups need to maintain a favourable reputation when they have a brand or trademark because it's an incentive for employees to join. 

 

People appreciate doing business with/for companies that have a strong reputation. 

 

When development is involved, this becomes much more important. 

 

If a startup wants to grow, hiring more people is essential.

 

As a result, a budget becomes necessary, making the trademark a valuable asset when applying for business financing.

 

3. Protection from Legal Problems

Lack of a trademark registration exposes a company to legal action from other businesses using the same or similar logos, names, slogans, or designs. 

 

If that occurs, a company will have to cope with changing everything they created, including the content for their website, their marketing strategy, and to a large part, their trademark identity.

 

4. Trademark is Permanent.

A trademark is perpetual and requires only periodic renewal. 

 

Consider the aforementioned titan companies Pampers and Jacuzzi; they have long been leaders in their respective industries and will continue to prosper for many years to come. 

 

This highlights how crucial it is to manage careful trademark research to ensure that the regulatory body does not reject a startup's application.

 

Therefore, it is sage to employ the services of a reputable, well-regarded intellectual property service company.

 

5. Business's Most Valuable Asset

It can serve as a catalyst for enhancing value as a startup business develops, and even more so if the startup keeps growing. 

 

Therefore, using a trademark in marketing strategies is essential to boosting brand recognition and luring more customers.

 

Customers will start to identify a startup's trademark with how the market is operating once it has established a solid reputation for its good or service. 

 

Trademarks are quite helpful for businesses who seek to:

 

• Increase the variety of its offerings
• To increase its value by offering it for sale
• Branch out into franchising by obtaining a licence

 

6. Communicates your Seriousness

It's well known that trademarks lend legitimacy to a company's name; consider Disney. 

 

If they didn't trademark their brand, just imagine the judicial devastation that would result! 

 

There would be ferocious conflict. able to capitalise on the empire of authority that surrounds their brand.

 

Additionally, if a company has a trademark associated with its brand, it communicates to both customers and rivals that they are confident in the success of its company. Also, they have something worth copying. 

 

Yes, that does sound odd, but it is the truth.

 

Would you keep something that was not valuable? 

 

By going above and beyond and registering a trademark for your company, you are seen in a different light.

 

7. Gives a Feeling of Autonomy

It is no secret that the industry is extremely saturated across a wide range of various areas with greatly variable capacities. 

 

Being even the smallest fish in a tiny pond as a business is really difficult. 

 

A trademark can act as a crutch in this situation since a startup would want to uphold its positive reputation once it has established itself.

 

By using a blanket of protection provided by trademarking a name or brand, a developing company can absorb the blows of the market. 

 

Both directly and indirectly, it lets people know that the company is being run with serious consideration.

 

Process for Registering a Trademark in India

 

• Search for Trademarks

To confirm that your mark is available, the first step is to do a search of the TM registry. It is crucial to make sure the proposed trade mark is distinct from any other marks that have already been registered.

 

• Choose the Class That Is Right for Your Business

The TM register has multiple classes for various goods and services. Choose the category that best fits your company's needs.

 

• Get a TM number by Submitting the Application 

The TM Registrar must receive a trademark registration online form (Form TM-1) and the necessary fees in the authorised format. 

 

Within one or two working days, the register will then assign an application allocation number.

 

• Registration and verification

The application will then begin to be verified. It will be delivered to the TM Registrar Office's Presiding Officer. 

 

If satisfied, the Officer will issue the examination report after checking the application for accuracy.

 

• Show up for a hearing with the office or registrar

The applicant can appeal and appear before the trademark officer to answer the objections presented by the appropriate officer if the application is rejected or objected to by the verifying officer.

 

• Completion of trademark registration

The applied mark will be published in the registrar's Trademark Journal as soon as all compliances have been met and the application has been fully approved.