Trademark Registration and Brand Protection Guides

When starting a business, protecting your brand is just as important as launching your product or service. One of the most common questions new entrepreneurs ask is: Does forming an LLC protect my business name from being used by someone else? The short answer: No, forming an LLC does not...

Who Owns the Copyright?Just because you pay someone to create something for you, to paint an image, or design your logo doesn’t mean you own the copyright or other intellectual property in that image. The creator of any material or image automatically receives copyright protection for their work...

Canada and the USFor instance, this is straightforward in Canada because there are two official languages, French and English. Anything you file in English will automatically cover the French version. This can make for some challenging trademark searches because you must look at synonyms not only in one language but...

Set the Stage Andrei!Initially, when the first trademark laws were being adopted, you could only trademark brands that covered physical products. You couldn't trademark brands to cover services. Then, at some point, they figured out that, hey, the brand is equally important to companies that offer services, they should...

Renew, Renew, Renew…In theory, a trademark is the only type of intellectual property that can last forever. You can renew it over and over, which, since 1892, is what Coca-Cola has done without fail. As a result, the brand alone is worth over $70 billion. Not their factories, merchandise,...

THINKING OF TRADEMARKING YOUR BRAND? There are a few things you can trademark: product names, service names, taglines, logos, and a few other things. But product names were the original reason for trademarking. When someone had a product that was legitimate and physical, there was often a brand name attached...

If you’re building a brand and considering trademark protection, one of the first questions you’ll ask is: How long does it take to get something trademarked? The short answer: between 12 and 18 months on average. The long answer: It depends on many factors—and it can take...

Governmental Cost to Register a Trademark When it comes to the cost to register a trademark, there are two parts to that. The first part is the government fees that you pay to the government to get it done. And the whole thing starts with the filing fees. These are...

What is a Tagline and What About Them is So Valuable?First of all, I'm using the word tagline interchangeably with a slogan or catchphrase. If there is a distinction, it's not relevant with respect to what I'm going to talk about. So let's just jump right into it. What...