Global trademark registration and monitoring are crucial for businesses to drive growth and leverage their IP. Carrying out a trademark (mark) search is a crucial first step towards securing mark protection. After conducting these searches, businesses can file their application with the concerned trademark office to obtain a mark. Once a mark is registered, it needs to be monitored constantly to ensure that no one infringes it. Thus, it is important to conduct global trademark registration and monitoring timely and cost-effectively. The following article explains how businesses such as yours can save costs associated with global trademark registration and monitoring.
Also Read: How to Conduct Global Trademark Searches Cost-effectively
Understanding Trademark Registration and Monitoring
Most businesses usually seek mark registration for a name or a logo. However, it is important to understand that apart from these two, one can also register a slogan, word, photograph, sound, graphics, or even a color combination. Trademark registration protects an entity’s unique creations by allowing the right holders to take legal action against the infringers.
Trademark monitoring, on the other hand, involves watching ones’ competitors and being alert about potential mark infringements. During this process, businesses monitor the worldwide use of marks that are similar or identical to their registered mark. This allows them to take the necessary steps or immediate legal action when needed.
Also Read: Before Filing a Trademark Application: Points to Consider
Cost-Effective Ways to Register Trademarks Globally
Seeking a One Stop Solution for Mark Registration
To obtain a trademark in a particular jurisdiction, a business must file a mark application with the concerned trademark office. However, filing individual applications for getting mark protection in different countries can be a cost-intensive and time-consuming process.
Today, multiple one-stop solutions are available in the market which can facilitate the trademark registration process. Firms such as The Trademark Filing Company serve as a one-stop solution for registering marks globally and thereby save time and costs.
Using Return on Investment (ROI) Calculators
ROI often dissuades businesses from registering a mark globally. Various ROI calculators can help businesses to calculate the ROI of moving ahead with mark registration in certain countries. Once the ROI is calculated, they can compare the results against their market sizing reports. In essence, these calculators help businesses to decide which markets to choose, when to choose, and how to choose them to save time and costs.
Also Read: Trademark Watch Service: Why do you need One?
Cost-Effective Ways: Global Trademark Monitoring
Using DIY Tools
Once a business has registered its mark, it is crucial to monitor it regularly. Monitoring a mark in different countries, however, can be an extremely costly affair. To save costs and time, businesses can initially use DIY online tools that offer in-depth information on various marks available globally. Some of the popular DIY tools for searching and monitoring trademarks are as mentioned below.
WIPO – Madrid Monitor
Madrid Monitor can be used to track the status of mark registrations or international applications. It can also be used to get information on all marks registered via the Madrid System and to keep a tab on their competitors’ trademarks.
TMview
TMview is an online tool that enables users to search marks of all trademark offices involved in the initiative, free of cost. This tool can help users to:
- Perform 24×7 mark searches in 22 languages of the EU region.
- Get daily updated mark information from the official registers of the partaking offices.
- Gain access to millions of mark applications as well as registrations.
- Get updates on selected marks for change of applicant name, change of status, end of the opposition period, etc.
EUIPO
The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) handles both trademark and registered community design in the EU. The office also works with international partners and IP offices of the EU member states to provide a similar registration experience for designs and trademarks in Europe and around the world. Applicants can search for marks related to their marks using eSearch Plus.
Using Technology-enabled Tools
The trademark monitoring process was earlier considered a time-consuming and cost-intensive process. The evolution of technology, however, has made this process easier. These days, technology-enabled tools provide monitoring reports from over 150 countries in real-time and in any customizable format, i.e., in the form of an email, dashboard, or monthly/annual updates. These reports essentially provide information on possible conflicts and mark infringements. For instance, The Trademark Watch Company conducts global as well as multi-country trademark monitoring and provides real-time reports. Annual monitoring costs of each mark depend on the coverage.
Also Read: Hire a Trademark Attorney: What’s the Need?
Global Trademark Registration and Monitoring: Choose TMReady
To obtain trademark protection, it is imperative for businesses to not only perform effective mark searches but also register their marks. Furthermore, once you register a mark, it is important to conduct trademark monitoring to ensure that the registered mark is not infringed. As registration and monitoring fuel business growth and allow companies to leverage their IP, they must be performed timely and cost-effectively.
TMReady’s Trademark Monitoring service enables brands to keep an eye out for mark infringement globally as well as within the geographies they operate in. Our team leverages conventional and non-conventional resources to keep a track of potential infringement while also enabling customers to protect their valuable brand names. Click here to know more about this service.
-Prateek Mohunta (COO), Gopal Singh Rawat (Trademark) and the Editorial Team