Insight
The Importance of Trademark Protection and Brand Value from Star Air Trademark Registration
The highly publicized Star World Airlines recently applied to the Intellectual Property Office for the registration of a Chinese and English trademark, only to find that the word "Star World" had already been successfully registered by Taichung Songlin Travel Agency at the end of last year. This incident highlights the lack of trademark protection concepts among domestic enterprises in general.
Many new companies often neglect to protect their brand and trademark rights at the beginning of their establishment, and as a result, they may have to spend more time, money and effort to deal with the subsequent problems. Therefore, from the standpoint of brand building, let's talk about how companies should lay out and pay attention to in order to protect their trademarks and brands from unnecessary losses due to infringement.
Whether it is a new company or an existing company, the process of building a brand is not easy, and the results often have a direct impact on performance and reputation, so it is important to have a complete layout. Simply put, the layout of a company's brand and trademark consists of several steps:
1. Naming and Searching
Generally speaking, when a company is naming, it can first go online to Google and search whether the name has been used by companies in other related industries and regions as a preliminary screening. To be more detailed, you can also search for similarity of trademark text and graphics, graphic text search, and graphic search through the "Trademark Search System" on the official website of the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO), or you can search for the name through law firms specializing in intellectual property rights to ensure that the name is not infringing on the intellectual property rights of any company.
2. Trademark and domain registration
Once the name is confirmed, in addition to business registration, it is also necessary to remember to register the trademark with the Bureau of Intellectual Property. Due to the complexity of the examination procedures, and the many registration items, including text (Chinese and English separately), images, product categories, etc., all need to carry out a search for registration information and examine whether there are legal provisions that prohibit the registration of the reasons, so the examination time is about 8 to 10 months, so the operators in the decision to use the specific logo and name as a trademark should at least file an application for trademark registration before publishing to the public. Therefore, when an operator decides to use a specific logo or name as a trademark, he should at least file an application for trademark registration before publicizing it to the outside world.
If the naming is done through a brand strategy and design company, it will usually remind and assist the enterprise not to overlook this important step, especially since registration requires a lot of application fees, and it will of course do its best to ensure that the chances of passing the registration process are increased. Otherwise, if the product and all kinds of visual designs are produced before the enterprise is forced to change the name, it will be faced with wasting and reproducing production and marketing costs, and it will be time-consuming to fight the lawsuits, which will result in the product being launched when it is the best time, or even being excluded from the market, damaging the reputation of the enterprise, which will result in a great loss. If not, the enterprise will be forced to change the name only after the product and all kinds of visual designs have been produced.
In the Internet era, domain name registration is also extremely important. An exclusive domain name not only facilitates customer search, but also builds up the awareness and trust of the enterprise. In order to avoid being pre-empted by other operators or even cyber cockroaches, the domain name should be determined from the beginning, and perhaps avoid the expensive and time-consuming rebranding situation in the future.
3. Effective maintenance, management
The hard-earned trademark represents the company's brand and reputation, so the use of trademarks needs to be regulated and guided to avoid color differences, proportions, combinations, etc., which are not standardized, and may cause confusion to customers or consumers. If you only hire a general designer or design company to design the visual images, the cooperation often ends after the submission of the draft, while a more established brand strategy and design company will provide a complete brand management manual containing the guidelines for the use of trademarks, to assist the company to continue to maintain and manage its brand and trademarks.
In addition, trademarks are only valid for 10 years and different regions need to apply for local registration, so don't forget to apply for extension and renewal.
4. Supervision and suppression of illegal acts
In the unlikely event that a trademark is taken by another company, there are generally four ways to resolve the issue:
:: Filing administrative objections and taking legal action
:: Utilize the power of media coverage to gain recognition
● Direct buyback of trademarks
:: Renaming and rebranding
Even after registration, enterprises still need to monitor their trademarks, brand names and products at all times to see if they have been plagiarized, imitated or stolen by others, and to raise administrative objections in a timely manner, otherwise they will not be able to file charges against the plagiarizers after the time limit has expired.
A brand is a reputation, a trademark is a fame, and an opportunity is a business opportunity!
Designing a recognizable brand
From the above, we can see that there is a lot to learn about corporate naming, how to get a high degree of recognition, but also can convey the brand characteristics and core values, and easy to remember a good name, is a lot of operators the most brain-wracking part of the brand through the brand strategy and design company, will be based on the following principles:
1. Analyze the naming logic of relevant competing brands
2. Identify commonalities and differences in the industry
3. Comply with the brand strategy foundation (core values, characteristics, target groups)
4. Naming by hand
If the company's business scope expands overseas, it will also select words with similar sound and meaning in its Chinese and English naming, so as to match the characteristics of its brand. For example, the Chinese word "愛馬仕" for the boutique brand HERMÈS is very much in line with the spirit of the brand's initial venture in equestrian products, coupled with the high-class texture brought by the word "仕", which fully expresses the brand's characteristics, and the pronunciation of the word is extremely close to the original text, which is a very successful example.
However, when naming a company in a non-native language, it is advisable to consult the native speakers to avoid stepping on the taboo landmines of the local culture or language habits. Take Pro Brand Evolution as an example, the company is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, which is itself a multilingual country. In addition, the offices in Shanghai and Taipei gather partners from all over the world, so when naming a company, we will consult colleagues from all over the world to provide the most local and cross-cultural suggestions, so that the name is not only memorable, but also has a great significance.
In this highly competitive business environment, brand is reputation, trademark is fame, and the first opportunity is business opportunity. We understand that it is difficult to start a business, and the time and money invested in registration as well as the risks faced by the company are very high, therefore, to enhance the awareness of brand maintenance, active prevention and protection, and if necessary, to seek assistance from professionals and units such as the brand strategy and design company, the relevant law firms, and the Institute of Science and Technology of the Institute of Information Technology and the Law. By effectively minimizing the risk of trademark registration or misappropriation, your business will be more stable and long-lasting.
