What is a Trademark?
A trademark is legal protection for intellectual property. The owner of the mark has to submit the documents for trademark registration. The application has to be approved by the Intellectual Property Office before having the right to protection.
Trademarks can be words, phrases, symbols or logos, names, sound marks, designs, color schemes, holograms, motion marks, packaging of goods/services, or some other distinctive features that are associated with the brand.
For further information on trademarks read 7 Basic Every Entrepreneur should know about Trademarks.
Requirements to Recieve a Trademark
The following two requirements should be met before the mark can be eligible for registration:
- Use in Commerce
A mark to be used/being used is commerce is only eligible for trademark registration. - Be Distinctive
A trademark distinguishes a company’s goods/services from that of another. To be detectable a trademark needs to be exclusive. There are three categories of distinctiveness :
- Arbitrary, suggestive, or fanciful: If the mark belongs to any of the three sections then the mark is inherently distinctive.
- Descriptive: A descriptive mark can be only registered if it has a second meaning. For any name or a geographical term to be trademarked they ought to fall into this section.
- Generic: A generic mark is never trademarked. The mark needs to be uncommon and distinctive to be eligible for trademark registration. A mark can either be generic at the time of filing the application or it may become generic over time and continues use.
List of Required Information and Documents for Trademark Registration
There is a long list of information and documents for trademark filing. A different set of documents are required in different countries to file a trademark. But the below-mentioned requirements are the basics needed in almost all the countries to register a trademark.
- Name and Nationality of the Applicant, in case of a sole proprietor.
- Company name, entity type, country of incorporation, and details of all the partners, in case of a company.
- Address and contact details for correspondence.
- Properly formulated listing of all the goods or services for which the mark is to be registered.
- Soft copy of the mark which is to be trademarked.
- Demonstrate actual use or a real intent to use the trademark in commerce.
- A drawing of the trademark and a specimen of the mark when the application is based on actual use.
- If the mark consists of non-English words, a translated and meaning of those words into English (in few countries it should be translated in the official language of the country in which the mark is to be registered) is required.
- A detailed description of the product being trademarked.
- The date of first used the mark.
- In case of Priority Claims from an earlier filed convention application then details of that application are required ( including application number, filing date, country, and list of goods/services). A certified priority document or its duly notarized copy needs to be submitted. If the certificate is not in English then a certified/notarized English translation is required as well.
- Power of Attorney (PoA) either simply signed or notarized (depending on the country in which the mark is to be registered) is required.
- Cost of filing at least in one class goods/services.
Protect your brand by submitting your documents for trademark registration at TrademarkCart.
