You should register
your mark when your product already gives profit. So, when the expenses are
lower than income, you should start protecting your name from the competitors.
While there exist a
possibility that somebody would register the same mark for the same product, it
is highly unlikely. Because:
The chances that some
other person in the same country decides to register the same brand name,
having no knowledge about your business, is close to 0;
If somebody else,
knowing about your brand, registers it wishing to sell you the mark or
illegally disrupt your business, you can sue them in court (on the grounds of
bad faith).
I have seen cases, when
people just at the beginning of their business invested high money in the
intellectual property matters, but unfortunately, the business later failed. I
believe, at the beginning there are always better fields to invest money.
You already have
some-kind of protection:
While you must have
knowledge about existing intellectual property rights (not to be sued
yourself), protecting your own trademark can go to the second plan.
Furthermore, even if trademarks are not protected without registration, there
are still some legal grounds that protects you. For example:
A person who has used
legally the mark before someone else registered it (legally, of cause), cannot
be prevented to continue using the mark for the same scope (same goods and same
territory);
If your trademark is
not a generic term but an inventive word or a specific graphical image, it will
be protected by the copyright law. And the copyright law does not need any
registration, it is gained automatically once an original work is created. If you are a pharma
company, do it, before you tell the name loud:
But, the need to
register or not a trademark also depends a lot on the field where your business
operates. For example, drugs industry is especially sensitive for all IP
matters (patents, trademarks…). So, in this field I advice to register a mark
as soon as possible. Because in the pharmaceuticals industry, the competition
is really tough and it is better to have all IP protection you can.
Additional advices:
-Check for prior
trademarks;
-Do not use any mark
that is similar to the well-known brands (so NO “Aple”; “Cola-coca”, etc.);
-Better use a
distinctive word, phrase, logo - you have stronger IP protection.
ANT Lawyers - A Law firm in Vietnam is supported by a team
of experienced patent, trademark, design attorneys with qualification and
skills handling full range of legal services relating to intellectual property rights in Vietnam. We have specialized in the preparation and registration of
patents, trademarks and designs for our clients.
