Trademark registration is the first step you should take to protect your business.
What would happen if, with your brand already positioned in the market, you decided to start with the registration and you find yourself in the difficult situation of having to change it because it cannot be registered or, even worse, you were intimidated to stop using it? because it was previously registered by someone else?
It is that not registering your trademark in a timely manner and without adequate advice could cause you to lose the possibility of doing so later or that you infringe the rights of other people even without knowing it.
For these reasons, when you define the name and/or logo of your brand, it is important to verify if there is an identical or similar brand previously registered, both phonetically, conceptually, and grammatically. This is because our trademark law establishes that identical or similar trademarks cannot be registered previously registered or requested to distinguish the same products or services. Likewise, there are names, words, drawings and other signs that are not registrable, or that cannot be registered.
It is also important to highlight that the ownership of a trademark and its exclusive use are only obtained through the granting of registration by the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI). Consequently, until you register your trademark, it is unprotected and does not belong to you, which implies, among other issues, that if someone uses it, you will not be able to initiate legal actions, such as requesting the cessation of its use.
So that even though you have been using it for a long time, you have social networks and your website with that name or even the name of your company, you must register it beforehand so that it is protected in all these areas.
Although at the jurisprudential level the so-called “de facto trademarks” have been recognized, they do not have the legal protection of a registered trademark. Our trademark attribution system is registered being the recognition of marks in fact of a restrictive and very exceptional nature.
On the other hand, it must be taken into account that the registration process before the INPI is a long process which involves several stages, and which It will be strongly affected in its duration if oppositions from third parties are received or observations of the organism.
In summary, Being properly advised when defining your brand and registering it before launching into the market is key so that your venture is built on solid foundations, you guarantee ownership, its exclusive use and that in the future not only do you not have to change it if it is already registered, but you can also prevent other people from using it without your consent to offer a product or service similar to yours.
@studiobaldarotta
www.baldarotta.com.ar
*Content of a general nature for informational purposes, does not imply legal advice.
by CEDOC
