Trademarks: benefits for SMEs

Why are Trademarks Relevant to the Success of Your SME

By: World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)

A Trademark as a Face of Your Business

Using Brands and Designs to Market Goods & Services Abroad

Trademark Defined

A trade or service mark is a distinctive sign which identifies certain products or services as those produced or provided by a specific person, enterprise or a group of persons/enterprises allowing the consumer to distinguish them from goods or services of others.

A Tool of Competitive Differentiation

Your trademarks are in many ways the face of your business. They allow your customers to distinguish your products or services from those of your competitors, giving your SME the possibility to better market its goods or services.

Model Technology Transfer Agreement

Use of Trademark and Brand Name

A Guarantee of Consistent Quality

But trademarks are not just used as identifiers. They are also seen as a guarantee of consistent quality.

A customer who is pleased with the quality of your product or service will continue to purchase it based on the quality expectations based upon the known trademark.

You should, therefore, take great care in choosing and designing an appropriate trademark, protecting it, using it with care in advertising, and policing its misleading or improper use by others.

Brand Appeal

Example: Innompic Games

Example: WEneurs

Brand Management

Examples

Strategic Brand Management

Brand Management on the Web

Selecting a Trademark

While selecting a mark, you should find out whether the envisaged mark or similar ones have already been registered by other enterprises for the category of products or services and markets that you are interested in. This type of information is obtained by conducting a trademark search. Doing it early is crucial so as to avoid unnecessary conflicts with other enterprises and loss of resources.

Protect Your Trademark

Once you have searched trademark databases for conflicting marks, you should think about finding the best way of protecting it. On how to register your trademark see: “Some Common Features of Trademark Registration Procedures.”

Plenipotentiary Company Ambassador

Example: Brand Ambassadors of Innompic Games