If you are a startup business still in the early phases of operation or a well-established corporation with multiple products and services, you need to protect your trademark. Be it your product name, logo, or maybe the slogan. You will want to have an action plan for when your trademark is stolen and unfairly used and benefited from. On the other hand, you will want to avoid falling into that same mistake yourself by violating trademark rights of other businesses. Either way, to avoid the risks of losing money, time, or damaging your business reputation by being sued, you need to hire a trademark lawyer. Here are some benefits you will gain by doing so:
Facilitating the registration process
After proper investigation, these lawyers will be advising you on whether or not to apply for trademark registration. If your trademark is solid, they will be responsible for the registration process. As their first order of business, trademark lawyers will process all the paperwork needed to present to the Trademark Office proving your right to file your application for the trademark. They will carry out an extensive research to find out whether other companies have similar protected rights to the one you are seeking. This can be particularly difficult, as even unregistered trademarks need to be verified. Your lawyers will do this work on your behalf and save you from potential future legal disputes.
Following up with your application
Now that the paperwork is finalized and you have submitted your application for trademark rights, someone needs to do the follow-up. It is time consuming and in some cases not feasible for business owners to do so. If you are an owner of a large business, you will definitely have no time to make calls and run visits to the Trademark Office in order to follow up on your application. Your trademark legal representative will have the proper connections and the know-how of getting the job done.
Pursuing legal action when needed
Unless you are an expert in trademark and copyright laws, you will not be able to easily identify incidents of your trademark rights violations. However, experienced lawyers are attentive to such cases; since they know that there is a risk of losing your ownership rights if you do not pursue timely legal action to protect it when needed. Protecting your trademark right alone is enough to justify the costs of hiring dedicated lawyers.
Protecting you from ownership violations
This is especially important for small businesses taking their first steps into the market. The risk of stepping on one of the big companies’ toes and infringing their trademark rights will cost you a fortune and perhaps make you go bankrupt. Hiring a trademark attorney will be the safest route to take to save you potential hefty settlements.
Building a strong business foundation
Getting all of these areas covered at an early stage will help your business start on firm grounds. This will encourage investors to do business with you and will assure other stakeholders that you are taking care of their money with an intact business approach.
It is a good thing to be involved in all aspects of your business; however, some tasks need to be left to the experts as they can be time consuming and out of your depth. Trademark Rights is one of them. Starting on the right foot will protect you from future lawsuits and will let you focus on your growing your business.