Holistic Branding – “Protect your brand and build solid company capital!” Brand asset – brand registration and protection

It’s important to create a solid financial and brand asset structure in both private and business life. We also need the correct parameters and suitable protection for this. Otherwise, competitors will take advantage of our carelessness.

A brand that represents products or services must be protected because protection shows who alone owns the related marketing rights. Brand assets are also becoming increasingly important for company valuation and can no longer be ruled out. For this reason, it is important to create a clear foundation, register the trademark, and create security for future value enhancement.

Only those who meet formal and material requirements of a trademark can register it. Once registered, if it is in use, the trademark protects against third parties and those who try to infringe or plagiarize it. After a grace period, however, its use and marketing must also be factually proven. Therefore, it is elementary and important to ensure that similarities can also be excluded through market observation for trademark registrations—whether in the same or other classes of goods.

Legislation provides a complex basis for protecting designations, as special provisions must be weighed against each other. The brand name is generally regarded as a designation and term for a product, service, or goods globally. In addition, there is the indication of origin and protection beyond one’s own country, including domain names.

A trademark search should be carried out to determine whether a trademark has already been registered elsewhere or whether similar trademarks are protected. In which classes of goods and countries should these be protected or excluded from competitors and counterfeit hunters? Only after a thorough analysis does it make sense to proceed with registration, as it is also important to weigh whether the costs are proportionate, whether you can differentiate yourself from the competition, and whether attacks such as the risk of collision can be excluded and averted.

The registration procedure is broken down into 5 steps:

– Filing—Here, it is necessary that the logo, trademark (name), or labeling be correctly prepared, filed in the necessary file formats, and registered.

– Examination—As soon as the application has been filed, an incoming inspection is carried out, and a certificate of filing is issued in parallel—naturally with an invoice—which the trademark owner must pay (filing fee).

– Defects—If there are any defects, they must be rectified in correspondence. In the event of an appeal, appeals can also be made to the Federal Administrative Court and the Federal Supreme Court.

– Registration and publication—If this is granted, national registration and publication in the commercial register gazette are certain.

– Opposition procedure – Competitors or third parties can assert a right of opposition from the date of publication, which is valid for 3 months. If this is not used, the trademark is finally registered and protected.

Normally, an entry in the trademark register is valid for ten years and can then be extended for ten more years. It is important to ensure that this is not done after the first period has expired, but before the protection period has expired. If you are already a few months past the expiry date, you can apply for an extension within the first six months by paying an additional fee.

A trademark is automatically deleted ex officio after 10 years if no use is made of the extension. After that, a new application must be filed if the trademark is marketed and used again.

The international registration of the trademark can take place either directly or after confirmation of the trademark rights in your own country. For this purpose, there are procedural options in the association of EU member states, which are easier to handle than individual national registrations. The extension of the trademark(s) is always associated with costs, depending on the country procedure and the range of goods.

Importance of trademark protection!

The brand is used to give the product or service something special and is therefore a symbol of value, experience, and quality. These are decisive success factors that characterize the uniqueness and thus also you/your company. Recognition means instant allocation and perception. Brand protection should be seen as the development of a central, long-term, and success-oriented goal for you/your company – a brand asset and a clear increase in value. In the medium to long term, brand awareness grows, investments are made in building it, and these investments should also be secured.

Brand protection is an absolute priority because business success depends on the brand, which is therefore a decisive factor.