Benefits of trademark registration

An individual or organization has the right to use their mark without necessarily having to register it at a state agency. However, registering a trademark for your product or service before launching it on the market is necessary to protect the interests of the owner. Avoid the case that when a violation occurs, the individual or organization that is the owner of that mark has grounds to handle it. So what are the benefits of trademark registration?

1. What is a trademark?

Simply put, any letter, word, drawing, color, image or combination of the above signs forming an overall logo is considered a trademark. In some countries, a slogan is also considered a trademark and can proceed with normal registration. The purpose of a mark is to distinguish goods and services of individuals and organizations from each other

According to the law on intellectual property in Vietnam, the concept of a trademark is defined in Clause 16, Article 4 of the IP Law, “A trademark is a sign used to distinguish goods and services of other organizations and individuals. together.” Thus, it can be understood that a trademark must be a combination of tangible signs that consumers can distinguish with the naked eye. Trademarks after being registered for protection at the NOIP will be protected for registered goods and services for a period of 10 years from the filing date.

However, it should be noted that many people believe that if they register a business and the trade name is recorded in the business registration paper, it will also be automatically protected as a trademark. It should be made clear that a trade name only distinguishes the business itself from other businesses in the same line of business, and that a trademark is used to distinguish goods/services from other businesses and a company with There can be many trademarks.

2. Benefits of trademark registration

The first thing that your brand is widely known in the market is how successful your product is compared to other competitors. Therefore, it is important to ensure that your trademark is fully protected through registration

Registering a trademark gives the owner the exclusive right to use the trademark. This is extremely important, it will prevent others from marketing, promoting, distributing products with a brand that is identical or similar to yours. You can even take advantage of this to transfer the right to use the trademark or franchise the protected trademark to generate a great source of income for you.

As far as the function of a trademark is concerned, when registering, a protected mark helps businesses distinguish their products from similar products of competitors. This is an important element for advertising and marketing strategies as well as enhancing the product image into a popular brand in the hands of consumers.

On the contrary, when not registering for trademark protection, another individual or organization may proceed with prior registration unintentionally or intentionally because Vietnamese law provides for the right of priority as follows: “Industrial property registration applications enjoying priority right have the priority date as the filing date of the first application”. Thus, when there are 2 applications for the same registration of an IP mark, priority will be given to the first application and if that application is granted a protection title, the second application filed later will be rejected. Taking advantage of that, competitors can use the same or similar trademark to leverage the relationship you have built before. The fact that a competitor can use a trademark identical or similar to yours to enter the market and reach customers will affect the image and reputation of the company, especially when competitors take advantage of the reputation and connections you have built up before.

The above are the benefits of trademark registration, in general, when individuals and organizations register a trademark, it will reduce a lot of risks when bringing products to the market and will be protected. when a third party shows signs of infringement.