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Enterprise trademark strategy

Sep 2021
Six points to note for formulating your trademark registration strategy!
Enterprises must act in a timely manner when it comes to formulating yourn trademark registration strategies. Otherwise, you may end up paying a heavy price for it! As convoluting as it may seem, all you have to know for a successful registration strategy are as follows!
First, the priority is to always go for your current business areas when you are selecting the classes of goods and services your trademark falls into.
Second, do your business forecasts. You should forecast how your own business will develop in the future and how the industries will change in order to predict what kinds of trademarks you might need in the future. It is always helpful to have some trademarks in your reserves for your own use instead of having to acquire them for a hefty price – or worse still, being unable to use your desired trademark at all.
Third, developing from the first point, you may also find it useful to extend your trademarks to related classes of goods and services, especially those classes that could be easily confused with. This is very useful in preventing knock-off brands from exploiting your trademark in related classes of services and goods without any legal or monetary consequence.
Fourth, when your trademark involves names, meanings or patterns that may be applicable to other industries, you may consider to extend your trademark registration to these classes of goods and services as well. Even if ultimately your own business does not extend to these categories, you can still earn licence fees through trademark licencing. Furthermore, you can take the initiative to only select conscientious enterprises as licencees to protect the reputation of the trademark.
Fifth, in a similar vein to the above, with a registered trademark you can fend off potential damage to your brand name by preventing customers from associating your brand with unrelated or notorious companies. For example, if a milk-producer shares a similar trademark name with a toilet-manufacturer, it surely wouldn’t be pleasant for the customer to associate the toilets with the milk whenever he purchases milk.
Sixth, if funds allow, you should do a comprehensive registration to best protect your brand’s interests, as even well-known trademarks are susceptible to exploitation from knock-off brands.
To wrap up, regardless of how many of the above strategies you adopt, you must always bear in mind an awareness to protect your trademarks and your own intellectual property.
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Company information

BKIP Limited

Unit 2202, 22/F, Causeway Bay Plaza I, 489 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
(852) 3157 0065
tm@bkip.com.hk