Tel. support: (Mon-Fri 9AM-6PM) +44 7520 644428
Patentoid Blog 5 Most Common Mistakes People Make When Registering a Trademark

5 Most Common Mistakes People Make When Registering a Trademark

29.03.2021

Do you plan on having a trademark registered? With a trademark, your brand is not only protected from the competition, but also differentiated from other products, which you surely know by now. Let’s look at the 5 most common mistakes people make when registering a trademark.

1) Insufficient or No Research

Doing your trademark research before the registration itself is very important, if not crucial. Why? Because it is only when you do your research that you can be sure “your” trademark hasn’t been registered by anyone else yet and know which trademark classes are available for registration in regard to your specific trademark. But we’ll get into that later.

How does one do trademark research? There are several options to choose from. Firstly, you can have your research done by the Industrial Property Office – the office accepts research orders by mail as well as online. Secondly, you can have a look at the trademark database on the IPO website. Lastly, you can have your research done using our online service.

2) Incorrectly Filled Out Application

An incorrectly filled out application might seem like a trivial mistake at first glance; it is, nevertheless, one of the most common mistakes made when registering a trademark. Now, we aren’t talking about incorrectly filling out the name column here. What we’re talking about is all the necessary requirements of a trademark application. What exactly are those?

If the registrant is a natural person, the application has to contain their first and last name, permanent address (or mailing address, if different from their permanent address). If the registrant is a legal person, it’s necessary to state the company’s name and its registered office (if a proxy is to act on behalf of the company, it has to include the proxy’s personal data). Both entities have to include a list of products or services the trademark application relates to, a depiction of the trademark and their signature.

If your application is missing any of the required information, you’ll be asked by the Industrial Property Office to suplement the missing information, usually within 30 days. If you fail to do so within the given time limit, your application will be rejected.

3) Selecting the Wrong Class

There are several classes available for trademark registration depending on the product andservice type. The classes are set up according to an international classification system. They were created based on the Nice Agreement on International Classification of Goods and Services, hence the title Nice Classification. EU trademarks are usually registered in 1 nice class. If you want to register your trademark in more classes, an administrative fee will be charged for each additional one.

What’s interesting is that you can register the same trademark in several classes independently of each other and the registration will still be valid. The two trademarks will not interfere with one another. Here’s an example: The Orbit trademark is registered by one company as a chewing gum brand and by another company as IT software. Both brands are independent of each other.

4) Providing a Low-Quality Picture (logo)

Yes, this does happen, and it’s not a rare occurrence. As part of our services, we make sure all the base documents are checked thoroughly. If we are unsure about the quality of the provided materials, we return them to be revised. Upon arrangement, we can also process your graphic materials so that you can be sure your trademark registration is successful.

When you provide low-quality graphic materials, you’re risking your application being rejected for not being differentiated enough from the competition or other trademarks as well as insufficient protection of your brand (e.g. sending a logo that is hard to distinguish or read).

5) Registering a Trademark on Your Own Without the Necessary Information

Registering a trademark on your own without having the necessary information is the culmination of all the previously mentioned mistakes that can occur when registering a trademark. We would definitely recommend holding off on trademark registration if you haven’t read up on it. Ideally, leave the process to the experts. It’s completely up to you whether you go through a law firm or pick the comfortable choice and fill out an online application.

In any case, if you plan on protecting your brand, you should do so before it’s too late. Register a trademark today using this online form.

 

+44 7520 644428 [email protected]

Patentoid Copyright © 2024 Patentoid s.r.o.
Designed by Beneš & Michl