Starting a business requires plenty of formalities to ensure it is legally protected. Let us explore the complete process for protecting your trade name, including choosing a distinctive mark, filing an application, and handling if your copywriting application is rejected or an objection arises.
It becomes vital to protect your business’s identity in today’s highly competitive markets. To safeguard your logo, tagline, and brand identity from competitors, you need to stay updated on copyright norms and procedures. Understanding the full copyright process helps you secure and protect your brand against imitation and identity theft.
If you are wondering about the legal process of how to copyright my business name. Let’s break down the complete process and learn about the process step by step to make the process easier.
Copyright logo and name
Your name and logo create your own unique identity for your business. Therefore, ensuring that your business stays protected from any identity theft is an ideal step that any business should take. The name or logo of any business speaks for business, creating a strong presence of the business.
The growing importance of brand identity and brand value has resulted in an awareness about the rights and legalities associated with the copyright of a business. The curiosity, however, sometimes confuses, as there is no one to guide them.
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Why is copyright important?
Copyright helps your business build a face value and establish trust and an authentic presence, helping you build a trustworthy and inspiring customer loyalty. Legally, it gives your business the legal rights and power to use your brand identity. In a competitive and vibrant market like India, copyright helps your brand create a distinct and strong online presence. Thereby, enhancing your brand’s visibility and strong hold over the market.
List of people who can apply for trademark/copyright registration:
Individuals: any single person or individual can apply for a trademark, including foreign nationals
Business entities: Any kind of business enterprise, companies such as a private limited company, partnership firms, limited liability partnerships (LLPs), and sole proprietorships can all apply.
Other organizations: Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), trusts, and societies are also eligible to apply.
A trademark is any logo, a collection of characters or numerals used by the company to claim its ownership of a design or term that is used to represent its products or services. The trademark class is divided into different categories, such as product mark, service mark, collective mark, certification mark, shape mark, sound mark, and pattern mark. All the trademarks serve a single purpose, that is, to help the customers differentiate or help identify a brand from different brands and competitors in the market.
Product mark:
This trademark helps recognize the origin of the product and helps maintain the identity of the business and its reputation. All the trademark classes from 1-25 come under this category, all the goods. Trademarks filed under these classes are part of the product mark.
Service mark:
Quite similar to a product mark, a service mark is used to represent services and not goods. The main purpose of the service mark is to distinguish its proprietors from the owners of other services. All the trademarks registered under the trademark classes 34-45 are considered service marks.
Collective Mark:
Collective marks are used to communicate to the public certain characteristics of the products or services used to represent the collective. A group of individuals can use this mark to collectively advocate for a product or service. The owner of the mark may be an association, a government agency, or a Section 8 corporation.
Certification mark:
This mark is used to denote the origin, material, quality, and specifications used by the proprietor. This mark aims to bring out the standard and the quality of the product used by the proprietor. This mark helps to uplift the brand’s image to build a sense of trust in the customers by ensuring that the product has undergone quality tests.
Shape mark:
A shape mark is used to safeguard the shape of any product that helps the customers find it relatable to a specific manufacturer and buy the products. The shape of a product can be registered once its shape is recognized as a unique shape, for example, the bottle of Coca-Cola has a distinct shape.
Pattern mark:
Pattern marks are those products that have specific designed patterns that come out as the distinguishing factor of the product. Patterns that fail to stand out as a remarkable mark are generally rejected since they do not serve any purpose. For a pattern to be registered, it has to show evidence of its uniqueness.
Sound Mark:
A sound mark is used to distinguish a certain sound of a product or service, related to a certain supplier. To register a sound mark, the sound should be unique, so that the customers can recognize the product and services or a show the sound represents.
Documents required for trademark/registration:
These are the documents you will need to keep with you while you go for the filing of a trademark.
Copy of Logo (Optional)
Signed Form-48.
Udyog Aadhar Registration Certificate.
Incorporation Certificate or Partnership Deed.
Identity Proof of Signatory.
Address Proof of Signatory.
You will require these documents along with a proposal for business and your category of business that your business will be offering. A business objective that outlines the sector of business where your business will be delivering its services and products.
Trademark registration process:
Confirm the trademark class of your business before filing for the trademark to avoid any legal problems and issues for your business in the future. Ensure that no similar trademark has been filed. The trademark should be unique and should set your business apart from other competitors in the market. Taking the advice of a lawyer would be preferable in this case.
Create a Distinctive Logo and Brand Name
Your brand name and logo should be unique and distinct, free from any copying, and should be original. Sections 9 and 11 are two specific laws that address registerable and non-registerable marks. These sections state that your proposed trademark for your brand name and logo must be distinct, original, free of any widely used phrases, and clearly indicate the goods and services it is intended for.
Online research
Research online about the trademark of your business. Confirming the availability of your trademark ensures that you do not face any trademark objection or rejection after filing it. Similar logos, names, or brands should not exist under the trademark. This helps increase the chances of acceptance of the copyright application.
File for the registration
After you are done with online research and checking the trademark availability. Once you are done with these two steps. You can go for the filing of a trademark available on the IP website. After you have applied for notice of allowance from the USPTO, you have to do this by filing the registration form and the required fees. After the successful registration of your trademark, you can use the “R” symbol with your brand logo or brand name. You will also get listed on the trademark registry’s official website.
After you are done with the registration process, you will receive a trademark registration certificate. This is the document that proves that your business trademark is registered in the registry.
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Final notes
Copyright for any business is important as it legally protects your business from any kind of copyright infringement. If any unauthorized business or company tries to copy your business’s idea, logo, or name, you can file a case against that company. In case of reassurance or queries related to your trademark. You can contact or get in touch with Unboxfame. Unboxfame can guide you through the whole trademark process to make the registration process easy for you.