Begin with Choosing The Right Trademark

While there will never be a hundred percent guarantee as to which mark will work best, following some basic guidelines in selecting a trademark will be helpful.  As a general rule, avoid terms that are descriptive of your product or service e.g. ‘Superior Mix’ for a pancake or pastry mix, or ‘Beautiful’ for a cosmetics range. Other terms to avoid are geographic terms and surnames.

The type of trademark that usually receives the widest scope of protection are invented words that are freshly coined and have no meaning e.g. and ‘Kodak’ for cameras and ‘Microsoft’ for computer software.

Before you get a new trademark registered, it is highly advisable that you get a search conducted and evaluated by an experienced registered Trademark Agent to ensure that your proposed trade mark is available for registration and meets the criteria for registration.

In our 15 years of experience in trademark and IP consulting services and prosecution, we have found that the adage ‘great minds think alike’ often rings true!  Therefore, a trademark search is very important as it helps you to discover if   there are any other parties who already have the rights to the same trademark or potentially conflicting trademarks.