Many entrepreneurs often overlook the importance of trademarks in their business. Others even think this does not apply for small businesses. In this competitive market where brands are worth billions of dollars, you cannot afford to be careless.

Aside from your logo, you should also protect your tag lines, brand names, and packaging or designs. In case you don’t know, there are several advantages of having trademarks:

1. Protect your most valuable intangible assets - your brands and logos.
2. Act as a competitive tool to discourage your competitors from copying your logo or tag line.
3. Give entrepreneurs the right to file a lawsuit and collect damages in case of any infringement or violations.
4. Avoid manipulation and confusion with any seemingly similar brands in the market.

You can visit the “Trademarks” section of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for more details. It is sometimes more convenient and practical to consult with a trademark lawyer to help you with the entire process.

For a real example, you may want to read the trademark lawsuit between a small online perfume retailer Perfume Bay against online auction giant eBay.

Do you have trademarks now? Maybe it’s time you think about this.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Tips for Creative People. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.