How do I protect my business name or brand?
A business name or brand applied to distinguish your goods and services from those of other traders may be registered as a trade mark. Indeed, any mark capable of distinguishing your goods and services from other traders may in theory be protected as a registered trade mark.
Examples of commonly registered marks include trade names, domain names, logos and designs. However, even more unusual marks such as colours, slogans and shapes may in principle be registrable. Furthermore, many types of marks may also be protectable as a design in certain jurisdictions (e.g. as a Registered Community Design) in order to further safeguard your rights.
Registration as a trade mark provides the owner with a monopoly in the mark which has been registered. This can be used to protect the goodwill represented by the trade mark and prevent third parties from undermining investment in the mark by their use of an identical or confusingly similar mark in the same commercial area. Registration also acts as a record of your rights and provides a stronger basis for asserting those rights (or defending your continued ability to use your mark) than an unregistered right in a mark. Like other forms of Intellectual Property, registered trade marks are property rights that can be assigned, sold or licensed to other traders.
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Introduction
More about Trade Marks