A brand is an identity for an organization, product or service. It helps customers recognize and associate your company with a certain quality and standard. Protecting your brand is important to ensure you can continue to build your business and its reputation in the marketplace.
Here are some important things to keep in mind to protect your brand:
- Register your trademark: It is important to register your trademark so that you have the right to use it exclusively. You can do this by applying for a trademark registration at the Trademarks and Designs Office.
- Use your brand consistently: It is important to use your brand consistently on all your products, services and marketing materials. This helps customers recognize and associate your brand with your business.
- Protect your brand online: It is important to protect your brand online by registering domain names and social media accounts related to your brand. This prevents other companies from using your brand and being confused with your business.
- Be aware of trademark infringement: It is important to be aware of other companies using your trademark without permission. If you detect trademark infringement, you should contact the company in question and ask them to stop using your trademark. You can also seek advice from a lawyer to protect your rights.
- Brand care: It is important to keep your brand up to date and relevant to ensure it continues to be an important tool for building your business. This may mean regularly considering your brand and making sure it still fits your business and your customers. You can also consider updating your brand to keep it in line with the latest trends and marketing strategies. By keeping your brand current and relevant, you can ensure that it continues to be an important tool for building your business and its reputation in the market.
It is also important to be careful when using other brands and to ensure that you are not violating any copyright laws. It is important that you have the right to use any material that you use in your business, including images, music and other content.
Protecting your brand is an important part of building and nurturing your business. By registering your trademark, using it consistently, protecting it online, being alert to trademark infringement and nurturing your brand, you can ensure that you have a strong and unique identity that will help you differentiate yourself from the competition and build a strong reputation in the market.
How to register in Sweden with PRV
The process to register your trademark with the PRV (Trade Marks and Designs Authority) looks something like this:
- Apply for a trademark registration by filling in the application form on PRV’s website and paying the application fee.
- wait to receive notification that your application has been received and is ready for review.
- wait to receive notification that your application has been approved and that your trademark registration is valid.
In order to protect your brand, it is required that you have registered it with PRV. Trademark registrations are valid for ten years and can be extended if necessary. It costs SEK 3,500 to apply for a trademark registration with PRV. It is also possible to apply for a priority registration, which gives you priority in the examination of your application, but this costs extra.
In order for your application to be approved, it is required that your trademark is so-called “distinctive”, that is to say that it differs from other trademarks and is easily recognizable. Your brand must also not be too similar to other brands or create confusion with other brands. You can seek advice from PRV on how to make your application as strong as possible.
Please note that a trademark registration with PRV protects your trademark only within Sweden’s borders.
If you want to protect your brand internationally, there are different ways to do it. An alternative is to apply for a trademark registration through the International Organization for Trademark Registrations, WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization). This gives you protection for your trademark in countries that are members of the International Trademark Convention.
It is also possible to apply for a trademark registration directly in the countries where you want protection for your trademark. This can be a time-consuming and expensive process, as you need to apply in each individual country where you want protection.
It is important to bear in mind that a trademark registration with PRV does not give you automatic protection for your trademark in other countries. If you have ambitions to sell your products or services internationally, it is therefore important that you take this into account when planning your branding strategy.
Protect yourself internationally
The process for applying for a trademark registration via WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) looks something like this:
- Apply for a trademark registration by completing the application form on the WIPO website and paying the application fee.
- wait to receive notification that your application has been received and is ready for review.
- wait to receive notification that your application has been approved and that your trademark registration is valid.
In order for your application to be approved, it is required that your trademark is so-called “distinctive”, that is to say that it differs from other trademarks and is easily recognizable. Your brand must also not be too similar to other brands or create confusion with other brands. You can seek advice from WIPO on how to make your application as strong as possible.
A trademark registration through WIPO gives you protection for your trademark in countries that are members of the International Trademark Convention. This includes most countries in the world, but there are some countries that are not members. The protection of your trademark extends over a ten-year period, and can be extended if necessary.
It is important to keep in mind that a trademark registration through WIPO does not automatically grant you protection in all countries. You must apply for a trademark registration in each country in which you want protection for your trademark. It is therefore important that you plan your brand strategy carefully and ensure that you have protection for your brand in the countries where you have ambitions to sell your products or services.
Here is a list of the countries that are members of the International Trademark Convention:
- Afghanistan
- Albania
- Algeria
- Andorra
- Angola
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Argentina
- Armenia
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- The Bahamas
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Barbados
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Belize
- Benin
- Bhutan
- Bolivia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Brazil
- Brunei
- Bulgaria
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Cape Verde
- central African Republic
- Chad
- Chile
- China
- Colombia
- The Comoros
- Congo
- Costa Rica
- Ivory Coast
- Croatia
- Cuba
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Djibouti
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- El Salvador
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Estonia
- Ethiopia
- Fiji
- Finland
- France
- Gabon
- The Gambia
- Georgia
- Germany
- Ghana
- Greece
- Granada
- Guatemala
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Hungary
- Iceland
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Ivory Coast
- Jamaica
- Japanese
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Kiribati
- North Korea
- South Korea
- Kosovo
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Latvia
- Lebanon
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macedonia
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Malaysia
- The Maldives
- Mali
- Malta
- Marshall Islands
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Mexico
- Micronesia
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Myanmar (Burma)
- Namibia
- Nauru
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Niue
- The Northern Mariana Islands
- Norway
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palau
- Panama
- Papua New Guinea
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Qatar
- Romania
- Russia
- Rwanda
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Samoa
- San Marino
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
- Serbia
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Solomon Islands
- Somalia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sri Lanka
- Sudan
- Suriname
- Swaziland
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Syria
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Togo
- Tonga
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- Tuvalu
- Uganda
- Ukraine
- United Arab Emirates
- UK
- USA
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Vatican City
- Venezuela
- Vietnam
- Yemen
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
What do you need to submit with your trademark registration?
To apply for a trademark registration with WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), you need to submit the following documents and information together with your application:
- An application form, which you can find on the WIPO website.
- A sketch or image of your brand, showing how it looks.
- A list of the products or services for which your trademark will be used.
- A payment of the application fee.
To apply for a trademark registration with PRV (the authority for trademarks and designs), you need to submit the following documents and information together with your application:
- An application form, which you can find on PRV’s website.
- A sketch or image of your brand, showing how it looks.
- A list of the products or services for which your trademark is to be used is important to include in your application for a trademark registration, both with WIPO and PRV. This makes it easier for the authorities to determine whether your trademark is distinctive and does not create confusion with other trademarks.
It may be helpful to keep in mind that you do not need to list every product and service for which you will ever use your trademark. It is enough to list the products and services for which you plan to use your brand in the next few years.
It is important that you do a thorough investigation before applying for a trademark registration, to ensure that your trademark is not already registered by someone else. If you discover that your trademark is already registered by someone else, it may be difficult to get your application approved.
Can you protect worldwide?
It is possible to protect a trademark worldwide, but it requires you to apply for a trademark registration in each country where you want protection. There is no global trademark registration that applies in all countries, so you must apply for a trademark registration in each country where you want protection for your trademark.
There are different ways to do this, for example by applying for a trademark registration through WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) or by applying for a trademark registration through a trademark organization that covers several countries. It may be useful to bear in mind that the application process and the cost of a trademark registration may vary between different countries and organizations.
How to detect trademark infringement?
There are different ways to detect trademark infringement, depending on whether you want to use professional help or do it yourself. Here are some suggestions for things you can do:
- Perform a trademark check: You can use various tools, such as the EUIPO trademark database or the WIPO trademark database, to search for trademarks similar to your own. This can help you discover if someone else has registered a trademark too similar to your own.
- Monitor the market: You can sign up for the trademark authority’s watch list, so you will receive an email when someone applies for a trademark registration similar to yours. You can also monitor the market by regularly searching for your brand online or by subscribing to trade magazines and other publications.
- Hire professional help: If you have a large business, it may be a good idea to hire a professional trademark agency or lawyer who can help you detect and deal with potential trademark infringements.
It is important that you react quickly if you discover that someone has infringed on your trademark, as it can become more difficult to remove the infringement as time passes. Make sure you have documentation of the trademark infringement and contact a lawyer or other professional advisor if you need help dealing with the situation.
This is what you do if you discover trademark infringement
If you discover that someone has infringed on your trademark, you can follow these steps to deal with the situation:
- Contact the Infringer: It may be a good idea to first try to resolve the situation by contacting the infringer and asking them to stop using your trademark. You can send a letter or email explaining the situation and asking them to stop using your brand.
- Consider hiring an attorney: If you are unable to resolve the situation by contacting the infringer of your trademark, you may want to consider hiring an attorney or other professional advisor. A lawyer can help you draft a letter or lawsuit and advise you on how to best handle the situation.
- Consider suing the infringer: If contacting the infringer fails to resolve the situation and you want more formal legal assistance, you may consider suing the infringer . It is important that you have documentation of the trademark infringement and that you have consulted with a lawyer or other professional advisor before choosing to sue.
Dealing with trademark infringement on your own can be difficult, so it may be a good idea to get professional help if you need it. It is important that you react quickly when you discover trademark infringement, as it can become more difficult to remove the infringement as time passes.
Some final things to consider in your trademark registration strategy:
- Identify and define your brand: Think about what sets your brand apart from others in the market and what makes it unique. Be sure to define your brand, including its name, logo and color scheme.
- Do a market research: Do a market research to make sure your brand isn’t already taken or associated with something else. You can also research similar brands to make sure you won’t be confused with another business.
- Apply for a trademark registration: Once you’ve identified and defined your brand and done market research, it’s time to apply for a trademark registration. This can be done by contacting the trademark and design authority in your country.
- Consider trademark categories: Be sure to select the correct trademark categories for your business when applying for a trademark registration. This helps ensure that you have the right to use your trademark on the products and services you offer.
- Renew your trademark registration: Trademark registrations are usually valid for a certain period of time and must be renewed when they expire. Make sure you renew your trademark registration on time so that you can continue to use your trademark exclusively.
- Protect your brand online: Be sure to register domain names and social media accounts related to your brand to protect it online.
- Be aware of trademark infringement: Be sure to pay attention to whether other companies are using your trademark without permission. If you discover trademark infringement, you should contact the company in question and ask them to stop using your trademark.
- Brand care: Make sure to keep your brand up to date and relevant by regularly considering it and making sure it still fits your business and your customers. You may also consider updating your brand to keep it in line with the latest trends and marketing strategies. By keeping your brand current and relevant, you can ensure that it continues to be an important tool in building your business and its reputation in the marketplace.
- Be careful when using other brands: Make sure you have the right to use other brands and that you are not infringing on someone else’s rights. Also, be careful when using images and other media online, as there are specific laws that govern how you can use them.
- Be careful with your business documents: Make sure you have important business documents, such as trademark registrations and copyrights, well protected and stored. You should also ensure that you have agreements and policies in place that protect your interests and rights regarding your brand.
- Seek professional advice: If you are unsure about how to protect your trademark or if you have a problem with trademark infringement, it may be helpful to seek professional advice from a lawyer or other expert in the field. This can help you protect your rights and ensure you comply with all relevant laws and regulations.
