Quiet often I meet young entrepreneurs or business people who are in constant search for new opportunities or want to create a trademark that truly represents them, as individuals or as a business.
To create a trademark is not an easy task, but is not impossible. So here there are a few considerations that you should take into account during the creative process:
- First of all, one should remember that there are shapes and symbols that are related to certain goods and services, e.g. the balance for lawyers; cat/dog shapes related to vet services; spoon, fork and knife for restaurants or food. Although those images may, in some extent, help consumers to identify the goods or service, there will be more similar trademarks to yours in the market so that the likelihood of confusion and similarity raise to a level that you probably wont be able to get a trademark certificate. So we suggest to use a image or picture that relates to your activity, instead of keep using what everybody else does.
- It is also common to use black and white logos, apparently an easy option as you don’t need to worry to mix and match colors and shapes. However, the more graphic elements your logo gets the more distinctive it will be.
- There is also a trend among non-native English speakers going for an english name. If you are one of them, make sure you fully understand the meaning of the word or words you want to use and to use it in the right context. In English language there are words that have two or three meanings at the same time. Other frequently used languages are French or Italian, because they look good and they sound chic or elegant, the cons of using these terms is that, sometimes, the name is hard or impossible to pronounce, so the question would be… how can you possibly send a message to your customers and make them remember you or your business when people do not know the meaning or cannot even pronounce your business name?
- It doesn’t matter where you are from or where do you live. We strongly recommend to look for help, like a graphic designer or an experienced marketing person or agency. But, if you or your team can´t afford it, then you can make your own search over the internet or the yellow pages, to look for logos or images to get some inspiration or just to get some insight of the market.
Once your trademark is ready, the first step is to perform a cleareance search.
You should do the search once you are not going to make any changes in the logo or the denomination (name), otherwise you will have to perform additional searches every time you make a change.
The clearance search must be done in the country or countries you intend to file and use the trademark application. It is very important to perform a clearance trademark search because it helps to know the specific market situation and it allows to know in advance if there are any similar or identical trademarks that can prevent you from getting a trademark certificate or even sue you for infringement. The result allows you to take the right decision on time, as modifying the name or logo, which means to save a lot of money, time and frustration. Please, be aware: simple Internet search of existing trademarks is not enough,
At the end, the purpose of a trademark is to be a strong and distintive sign among others and increase the value of your business, with the proper management.
There are several kinds of searches, but we reccomend to consult with a trademark attorney: to be be well-informed allows us to take better decisions for our business.
Author
Rocío Robles
