Trademarks and intellectual property

Trademarks and intellectual property are important parts of building “value” around your business and projecting and protecting your business within your market place. Suzanne Harrington and her team at Pinnacle TMS work with clients of Thompsons Australia providing growth direction and strategic advice on intellectual property matters, together with professional, efficient and thorough trademark registration and related compliance services.

Below is a recent client newsletter of theirs covering “the importance for small to medium businesses to recognise that business or brand identity theft is not restricted to large businesses, and legal remedies available”.

 

There have been many interesting cases this year which we have been highlighting and the one we have selected this month involves McDonalds having to take action, as it regularly needs to, to protect its brands.

While this is a case involving a large corporation, it is very important for small to medium businesses to know that business or brand identity theft is not restricted to large businesses.

All Trade Mark Specialists see the hard earned reputation of even a solo/small business being used by a competitor to take advantage of that reputation.

Of course, when this happens it is often more shattering for the small business owner than the larger corporation with bigger budgets.

Just consider that defending/taking action when you don’t have a trade mark registration of your brand can cost in excess of AU$15,000.

The funds invested to secure ownership of your brand via trade mark registration will not only provide you with a business asset, but make it much easier to take action to stop brand identity theft and cost much less in fees.

Another point for small to medium business owners to remember is that as your brand grows your trade mark registration enables you to licence the brand and/or use the registration as a basis to file in another country.

If you are after more information, please see our website where we have a number of short videos, like this one in which I speak about

What to do when you are ready to trademark your brand

Fast Food Giant McDonald’s Wins Trademark Dispute Case with Singapore Rival

American fast food chain McDonald’s wins their trademark dispute over the use of ‘MacCoffee’. Singapore rival Future Empire was denied their claim.
http://pinnacletms.com.au/fast-food-giant-mcdonalds-wins-trademark-dispute-case-with-singapore-rival/

Also, for knowledge base on this specialist area, visit Pinnacle’s website www.pinnacletms.com.au

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DISCLAIMER
Thompsons Australia Newsletters and articles are distributed by professional tax practitioners to provide information of general interest to our clients. The content of this newsletter does not constitute specific advice. Readers are encouraged to consult their tax adviser for advice on specific matters.