subject: How To Get Your Trademark Registered? [print this page] Producing wholesale products is one of the best and most lucrative businesses in the UK. When you find your company settled and stabilized, its the time to get the documentation complete. Trademark registration is very important in this regard and needs to be done as soon as possible. Trademark is that distinctive logo, word or graphic design, which distinguishes the products of your company from everyone elses.
Why to register Trademark
When a company acquires a reputation and goodwill with a specific trademark, it is exposed to infringement of trademark. To avoid your worst nightmare, you should get yourself a registered trademark. Frauds are always on the run to steal your reputation and money by adopting different techniques. If your trademark is not registered, they will steal and register the trademark with them and may even file a case alleging infringement charges against you. On the other hand, if your trademark is registered, you will have full intellectual property rights and be in a better position to defend yourself.
How to register Trade Mark
Trademark can either be registered with third party such as trademark attorney or you can directly get it registered with the patent office. The basic registration cost of trademark is 200. There are total of 45 classes, which are internationally recognized groups, used for defining the nature of services or products that the trademark covers. For instance, class 17 covers wholesale suppliers products or class 21 covers small electrical products. Generally, additional charges of 50 per class have to be paid for any added class for the coverage of your trademark.
Checking the Trademarks availability
Remember, once fee for trademark application has been paid and your application gets rejected due to incomplete information or choosing the trademark which is already registered, there wont be a refund of any kind. So, before applying for trademark registration, make sure that the trademark you are going get registered is not already being used. Plus, before submitting the form, be very careful while filling the form and double check all the information mentioned in it. The patent office also offers search and advisory services, which will allow you to send the proposed trademark. The office will notify you about your application status that whether your proposed trademark is already registered or not. This procedure however, requires fee of about 82.25 pounds.
Things to watch out for before applying
There are a number of things to consider before applying for trademark registration. Remember, you cannot make any kind of changes or alter the information once application has been submitted. Descriptive trademarks, such as trusted Wholesale Suppliers, luxury cars, and genuine appliances, cannot be used as a trademark. If you, by mistake, mentioned such trademark while applying for registration, your application would be rejected because such phrases are too common and could be used for describing any industries. When a trademark is successfully registered, the owner can then use registered symbol with his trademark or RTM (Registered Trademark). A trademark is registered for the period of 10 years after that the owner can renew its registration, if he wants to.
How much time does it take?
After the submission of application, the form is viewed by different specialists who carry out different scans, so, registration of trademark can take several months. Your trademark will be checked for the genuineness and its compliance with the standard guideline. When cleared, the trademark will be forwarded to trademark journal. The journal will make it available publically for three months if anyone records an objection against it. After three months, if no objection is raised, you will receive the registration certificate and be free use it for your business.
