Why Should You Monitor Your Trademark?
There are many good reasons to monitor your trademark. These include the following:
– Knowing when you need to take action to keep your trademark from being infringed.
– Reducing impersonators and knock-offs.
– Staying on top of what your competition is doing.
Advantages of Trademark Monitoring
Trademark monitoring is essential. The economy continues to become more global, so the possibility for infringement also continues to increase. This is true in both business to business and business to consumer industries, as there are more options for consumers than ever before.
You’ll need to monitor your trademark so you can sustain and protect your trademark’s rights. This makes sure that you’ll be informed if a similar or identical trademark gets applied for or gets accepted for publishing. You’ll be given a chance to act quickly if you file an opposition.
It’s important to monitor your trademark with correct monitoring and enforcement, as you won’t be able to maintain your rights otherwise. Infringers also won’t be able to say that their infringing is legal according to the doctrine of laches. When you monitor your trademark, you won’t need to worry about clients going to someone who uses a confusingly similar trademark.
Disadvantages of Not Having a Trademark Monitoring Plan
There are several disadvantages to not monitoring your trademark. This can lead to you losing all the rights to your trademark. For example, if third parties start using similar trademarks that are related to services or goods that are comparable to yours and you don’t take any action, the trademark will lose some, if not all, of its value. The trademark won’t be the source identifier in the market anymore, which means it will get weaker and you may completely lose your rights.
Not monitoring your trademark can also cause you to lose revenue. If there’s notable infringement, your business may completely fall apart. In order to avoid this, you need to constantly monitor your trademarks to make sure they’re not being infringed. If you find that they are, you’ll need to take legal action such as sending cease and desist letters. You can also go forth with opposition and cancellation proceedings by going to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board or whatever other actions are appropriate in the circumstances.
