WHAT IS A GOOD TRADE MARK?

A trade mark which you can REGISTER is a GOOD trade mark.

If you can get a registered trade mark you get all the benefits including exclusive rights Australia wide to use your trade mark for your products or services.

A registered trade mark is your proof of ownership, which is real security for you, and a great weapon against competitors. It is also the one document which proves that you own the “goodwill” in your business – ask your accountant to value your goodwill and he will first value your brands.

PICKING A TRADE MARK WHICH WILL GET REGISTERED

Apart from being beautiful kittens this photo serves a purpose. When picking a GOOD TRADE MARK there are certain legal constraints which you must take into account. If you avoid these pit falls you more than likely have a GOOD TRADE MARK on your hands. There are two sets of constraints – existing trade marks and the Trade Marks Act which sets out what can and cannot be registered.

The kittens have all been given a name and they each illustrate one of the constraints. If you “test” your trade mark against the rules which each kittens name represents, and you don’t conflict with any of them, you could have a good mark on your hands.

PRADA – Prada is a well known trade mark. Obviously you cannot register this trade mark for bags. If you make car tyres it could be a different story – the best way to test whether your trade mark is “too close” to some one else’s is to get a TRADE MARK CLEARANCE SEARCH done. Then you will find out if you are too close to someone else AND whether you have any other issues which might stop registration.

ROMSEY – Romsey is a place name , in trade mark language a “geographical name’. There is a general rule against registering geographical names in the Trade Marks Act. Romsey may not be a problem name if there is no connection between the town of Romsey and your product – but in this case Romsey is one of the best known towns for breeding British Blue kittens – so ROMSEY is a bad trade mark if you a British Blue kitten breeder .

TINY – is NOT a GOOD TRADE MARK because it is hard to register descriptive terms. The Trade Marks Act says they are not distinctive. You can’t get a monopoly in TINY because the Trade Marks Act deems words like that should not be OWNED by one person – they are words that everyone should be able to use.

JONES – is no good – common SURNAMES cannot be registered in Australia. Common means more than 750 occurences in the Australian Electoral Roll. Stay away from surnames – and yes we do know about SMITH’s CRISPS- they are the exception that prove the rule.

KITTY – NO GOOD either – once again KITTY is descriptive – it is “a term likely to be used by Others’ to quote an often repeated phrase.

SUMMARY

Stay away from simply saying what your product is, how good it is and where it comes from– you can say all those things anyway – but they don’t make for a good trade mark.

To really be ahead of the game and if you do NOTHING ELSE get a TRADE MARK CLERANCE SEARCH done – we weigh up not only other people’s trade marks but we also point out if you are likely to fall into any of the common traps.