What steps to follow to register your brand?
Here are some steps to consider:
- Study your market and your direct competitors.
- Define a personality and a long-term vision for your brand.
- Measure the issues, choose the name of your brand.
- Find the right slogan
- Imagine a logo, iconic, emblematic, logotype etc. …
- Define and choose colors and fonts
Registration of your brand:
Is it compulsory to register a mark?
Trademark registration is not compulsory…
It is entirely possible to use a mark without having registered it, because there is no rule of law which prevents anybody from doing that.
But it is strongly advised.
Protection of your created brand ?!
To become the owner of a brand, you must make a deposit with the INPI.
Why register a trademark?
The filing of the mark allows the holder to protect his registered mark from use by his competitors.
Third parties may not use any sign (name, logo, designs, etc.) identical or similar to the brand in the same field of activity.
How to protect a brand?
How to protect a brand? A mark, that is to say, a sign, a term or an expression representing a company.
A good or a service, must be deposited with the National Institute of the industrial property (INPI) to confer on the depositor a exclusive right on this brand.
How long does the brand protection last?
Once the steps have been taken to register the mark, the registered mark is protected for a period of 10 years.
After this time, the brand will no longer be protected.
But the term of protection is not limited, a renewal procedure being possible
What is a community brand?
The Community trade mark is a single title which covers all EU countries.
The origin of the community trademark dates back to 1996 and its filing necessarily targets all the member states of the European Union (27 countries currently).
How to protect your brand internationally?
The filing of an international trademark allows you to obtain greater protection.
It is indeed possible to obtain a monopoly of exploitation in one or more of the 97 member states of the Union of
Madrid, via a single deposit with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
The brand as a legal shield
Thanks to your trademark registration, you will get a theoretical monopoly, because still the brand must be available at the time of the registration on a name. This means that people after you who wish to use it cannot in principle do so (provided that you defend your rights). In all cases, these people cannot prevent you from using this name, since you will have a right prior to theirs.
So even if you don’t defend your brand, it protects you against uses subsequent to yours
