Why You Need Trademark Registration

• Are you looking for the best Australian Trademark Registration?
• When you are a new business owner, it is important to consider the safety of your intellectual property – your business trademarks – from the earliest stages.
• Your business brand and its associated reputation are some of the most important, valuable assets, so it is integral that you take care to protect them from infringement.
• Many businesses have found themselves losing customer trust and therefore revenue due to infringement upon their intellectual property.
• Trademarks registration can include a number of different signs, symbols, and pictures. A trademark is a ‘sign’, or a point of origin, that a trader uses to distinguish their goods and services from the competition.

What is Trademark Registration?

Your business trademark should be as unique and identifiable as possible. Generic or overly descriptive trademarks are not only difficult for consumers to distinguish, but they are also difficult to register. Trademark registrations are generally granted to marks that best distinguish their businesses and products, as well as stand out amongst the rest of the marketplace.

If you have already chosen a name for your business, or created a logo for your products, registration of a trademark is the only failsafe way to signify to others that you own these particular trademarks. When you apply to register a trademark, you also nominate a number of different products and services that are associated with that mark – namely, the products and services that you provide. Your trademark rights will be limited to the products and services that you nominate in your application.

Contact Quick Off The Mark for all Trademark Matters

 What Rights Come with Trademark Protection?

There are several rights that come exclusively with registering a trademark: these rights are not available under common law.

• The right to use your trademark (your name, logo, symbol, graphic, et cetera) in association with the products and services nominated by your registration. By registering your trademark as your business name (with ASIC) or as a domain name, you are not securing this right exclusively.
• The right to authorise the use of your trademark by a third party, in association with the goods and services nominated in your registration. This means that you can license other parties to use your trademark, usually at the cost of a licensing or royalty fee, thus bringing in additional revenue.
• The right to take legal action, in compliance with the Trademarks Act 1995, against any other trader or party that infringes on your trademark rights. Infringement might occur if another party uses a similar logo or name as your own, or when someone counterfeits your trademark to sell their own, lesser quality, products. Regardless of your right to enforce legal action against infringers, you should always consult a trademark professional about the nature of the infringement and the appropriate action to take.

How Much Will I Pay to Register My Trademark?

There is a common misconception that it is less expensive to leave your trademarks unregistered. While it might seem that you are saving money, you are increasing your risk of encumbrance to your business due to loss of income due to damaged reputation, or due to legal battles should another trader attempt to prevent you from using your established trademark.

Trademark registrations costs vary: generally, in Australia, your trademarking fees will begin around the $1000 mark. These costs are divided between the money you spend on government fees, and the other that you spend on professional assistance. At Quick Off the Mark, we can offer you a reduced rate, as well as a free comprehensive trademark search to determine the availability of your mark. Please feel free to contact as for further information on pricing.

Once your mark is registered, your rights are secure in Australia for a period of 10 years. You can renew your mark continually every 10 years if you so desire.

In addition, your trademark costs will depend on the number of products and services you wish to nominate in your application. You will be charged addition fees for every extra category that you nominate.

How Can Trademark Protection Benefit Your Business?

Trademark registration has the potential to increase your revenue from the very dawning of your business. Firstly, once you are the registered owner of a mark, you are entitled to display your trademark alongside a registered trademark symbol, thus displaying to other traders that you are in a defensible, competitive position to protect your trademark.

You can also generate extra revenue by licensing other traders to use your mark. You can charge each licensee a royalty fee, which creates solid income, but you will also be allowing others to generate consumer attention and trust by circulating your trademark throughout a broader area. The reputation of your brand will increase, which, in turn, will increase the value of your brand.

Trademark registration also grants you the right to sell your trademark to another party, just as you would with physical property. Thus, should you decide to sell your business, you can also sell the intellectual property – the brand – associated with your business.

More than anything else, a registered trademark sells peace of mind to your potential buyers. When you sell your business and include ownership of your registered trademarks, your buyers know that their continued use of that brand cannot infringe on the rights of others, and that others cannot infringe on their rights. To sell your business without the right to use the associated brand is fraught with risk: your brand name could, in fact, be infringing on another party’s intellectual property.

BIO:

Quick Off the Mark® is a division of Mark My Words Trademark Services Pty Ltd (MMW). MMW was founded in 2011 and is headed by Jacqui Pryor, a registered trade marks attorney with more than 16 years experience.

In 2015 MMW acquired Quick Off the Mark®, which is a fast and affordable Australian trademark registration service. Quick Off the Mark® offers fixed fees that are affordable to help Australian businesses register their trademarks.

Disclaimer – The advice provided in this blog is general advice only. It has been prepared without taking into account your business objectives, legal situation or needs. Before acting on this advice you should consider the appropriateness of the advice, having regard to your own objectives, legal situation and needs.