The article will be useful for self-employed people, individual entrepreneurs and legal entities who promote their business on the Internet. Before starting sales, you need to make sure that the brand does not violate anyone’s rights to the trademark. And register it with Rospatent to protect your rights. There are at least five reasons for this.
1. You will be able to block those who try to copy or use your trademark without permission
Such situations are not uncommon on the Internet:
Here is a real-life example: one of the companies the designation “loreal”. The copyright holders noticed this and went to court, which always sides with the owner of the trademark. As a result: the defendant was ordered to rename the company and was banned from selling goods under the “loreal” brand. In addition, they ordered compensation of 50,000 ₽.
If there is a registered trademark:
● contact the offending company with a request to remove the illegal material;
● if there is no response, prepare a lawsuit.
2. There will be no fear of “patent trolls”
Patent trolls are lawyers and companies that make money from patent lawsuits. They find brands that don’t have a trademark yet and register the intellectual property for themselves. Then they go to court and file a lawsuit for trademark infringement. If successful, they receive compensation from the brand and deprive the company of the right to use the name.
Large corporations can also fall victim to patent trolls. In 2018, businessman Azamat Ibatullin demanded that the trademark of the Top Gear TV show (BBC) be cancelled. Rospatent supported Ibatullin’s demands , and BBC lawyers were forced to go to court.
3. Payment for violation of trademark rights – up to 5 million ₽
This is how much you can get if someone illegally uses your right to a brand – illegal copying of a registered trademark under the Civil Code of the Russian Federation provides for payments to the injured copyright holder of up to 5 million rubles for one violation. And twice as much in the case of a repeated violation.
For example, in 2018, an individual entrepreneur received 2 million rubles from a competitor who inserted someone else’s trademark into the coding of his website in the form of HTML code in order to be better displayed in a search engine (No. A45-5897/2018 ).
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Or here’s another example: the court agreed with the plaintiffs’ position and immediately collected 5 million rubles from the violators, who had been selling clothes with a similar brand online for several years (No. A41-39390/2020 ).
4. Make sure you are not infringing someone else’s trademark rights
Registering rights to a brand is always an effective protection against becoming an infringer yourself.
Imagine:
- Masha came up with the brand concept from A to Z, invested money in promotion and launched production.
- Time passes, and she receives a letter at her legal address from a company operating under a similar name in another region.
- It turns out that the trademark used is not new at all. Moreover, an enterprising competitor registered the brand with Rospatent and protected himself.
- If the brand is not changed, the competitor has the right to make a claim against Masha for up to 5 million rubles. She will have to stop using the trademark, as well as pay compensation and cover legal costs.
This situation is fictitious, but based on real events. This can happen if you do not protect yourself and your brand by registering it with Rospatent. Before filing an application, users should check whether the name already exists – at this stage, you can choose another name and register a unique trademark for your company. Then you will not have to worry that it will violate someone’s rights.
5. A trademark will be useful for trading on marketplaces
If you are going to trade on marketplaces, then a registered trademark is vital for business: when creating any product card, you must provide documents confirming the legality of the use of the brand.
By the way, you can also get a bank loan buy country wise email marketing list for developing your business under a trademark. For example, in 2010, this type of financing was provided to the manufacturer of mayonnaise “Moskovsky Provansal”.
How long does it take to register a brand with Rospatent?
According to the Rospatent regulations – up to 18 months and 2 weeks. But on average, a trademark is registered within 6-8 months:
- It takes 3-5 days to prepare the application,
- The examination lasts 5-6 months,
- It will take 1-2 months to receive the certificate.
Who can apply for registration of a mark?
Both legal entities and individuals, such phone number qa as the self-employed, can submit an application.
By the way, it is not difficult for the self-employed to register a brand – it will take only 5 minutes to fill out an application in Online Patent. Online Patent has 10 years of experience in protecting intellectual property and verified experts who will monitor each stage of the examination. And with the promo code REG11, they will make a discount of 1,000 ₽ on brand registration.
If you are planning to register your surname as a trademark, it is worth checking whether it is a common name. Rospatent has repeatedly refused entrepreneurs for this reason.
How many years is a trademark protected?
Trademark registration is valid for 10 years. It can then be renewed an unlimited number of times.
