Your brand, your products, are part of your identity and play an important part in your marketing strategy by making the public identify your goods and/or services. Understanding the importance of trademark registration is crucial as it not only increases your credibility but also allows you to have exclusivity on your brand. Having one or several trademarks secures your unique position in the marketplace.
A trademark can be one word, a group of words, a sign, a symbol, a logo, or a combination of all. Registering a trademark allows your company to:
• Protect the brand and/or product distributed
• Grants the exclusive nationwide ownership of the brand
• Decrease or eliminate direct competition. Another party cannot claim the ownership/exclusivity of the same
product
• No other companies can use your brand name
Ideally, a trademark registration must be done before you start your operation; it has in a way the same importance as as your company’s name. The right to a register a trademark is granted only to the one who first files a trademark application with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) of the Philippines.
Lets consider a start-up. A company that does not have much value, recognition in its business or product. But imagine they come up with a revolutionary product, its competitors can easily market and distribute the same product, and eventually secure the trademark. All the marketing investment might become useless as competitors may use the same trademark for similar products or services.
Your product is well registered with the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), however, you have not secured the trademark for it. If a competitor plans to distribute the same product and secure a trademark, there is a chance that this competitor claims to be the owner of the brand.
Another very important aspect to consider is that registering a trademark considerably increases the potential source of revenue through royalties if a distributor wants to distribute the same product. A trademark can also be the basis of a franchising agreement.
Triple i provides assistance for companies aiming to register trademarks with the IPO in the Philippines. Should you need assistance with your trademark registration, please do not hesitate to contact us.
