Businesses typically conduct a trademark search but the stark reality is that cover around 5% of what’s needed to ensure no litigation or loss. It is not until the Trademark is challenged and they lose the Registration and their brand, that they wish they had chosen a premium trademark service provider who treated their proposed brand comprehensively.
Our Trademark Attorneys conduct searches with 25 years experience so you can sleep safely at night knowing there’s no hidden cease and desist or Court summons waiting the next day.
Trademark Attorneys conduct comprehensive trademark searches and provide clear advice on what to do next. We don’t just present results to you and then have you work out if you are infringing. We go one step further than many others and work out whether there is an infringement problem for you, as part of our service.
Finally, if the Trademark Office issues an Adverse Report refusing to Accept your trademark, we can help too. Importantly though, the Trademark Office is not checking if your trademark application is correctly lodged, enforceable, or whether a third party could also apply for the rights, or similar.
Our premium trademark services provides a complete picture of threats and strengths in your right to apply for a trademark, and right to retain the Trademark Registration, before you lodge.
Find out:
(1) whether you have (or will) invest all your set up costs for a brand that’s not yours and can be claimed by others,
(2) if you will infringe a Registered Trademark (liability, loss, Court attendance),
(3) whether you would be up for trademark losses or damages (compensation/litigation), and
(4) whether the 7-9 month Trademark process will be a waste of time, only to have someone oppose.
Just take a look at our blogs reporting several recent Australian Federal Court actions where Businesses were sued for trading with a Trademark, even when they had a Registered Trademark already.
The largest error when businesses conduct Trademark searches they usually put only the exact word in and it comes up with “0” results.
What if there are vowel changes?
Are different trademarks a litigation risk for you?
What would the Federal Court decide if there was litigation?
Answer: No you are not safe with an Australian Trademark Registration. Others can oppose registration of your accepted Trademark Application.
Alternatively a competitor with competing interests in a brand can take Court action to have your Trademark Registration cancelled or revoked, and also seek compensation.
See this Federal Court case we reported where a number of Trademark Registrations were cancelled seven (7) years later.
For Example, say your proposed Trademark was GHOST.
You do a Trademark Search and the Trademark Register (powered by IP Australia) reports “0 results found” for GHOST – leading you to lodge a Trademark application, and you still happen to get caught because of a trademark in the same field for HOST (without the G).
There are many traps with searching that a Trademark Attorney or lawyer only know how to find and evaluate. Don’t find out the hard way, when it is too late to turn back.
You need to get the right category(s) or class(es), and failing to do so means you obtain the wrong results.
You need to understand Trademark laws and Court cases to interpret the Trademark results (usually there are spelling differences but how do you know it’s enough to get you out of infringement?).
How do you know to vary the Trademark, and to what extent do you need to vary it? If you search for GHOST the system won’t tell you to look for: GHOOST, GHOSST, GOOST, PHOST and HOST, all of which pose potential infringement concerns that need to be assessed by a Registered Trademark Attorney.
Trademark searches require substantial experience to not miss important records, legal case knowledge to interpret the results, and experience to work out exactly how close you are.
An Australian Registered Trademark Attorney will determine your trademark risks early, so you don’t endure longer term risks of trademark litigation.
If you think Court cases won’t happen to you, take a look at our blog section where for example financial planning and an electrical wholesaler got caught and relied to heavily on faulty Trademark Registrations.
Don’t delay, fill out our Information Pack Request form to get in first to protect your proposed brand.