The modern world is becoming more technological and globalized. Ideas are in the air, are embodied in new products and services, and quickly spread outside the country. Everything new attracts not only investors, but also other interested persons who can use the idea or try to appropriate it for themselves. And this is one of the reasons why any idea should receive timely legal protection.
Since ideas are the result of intellectual activity, it is possible to protect them by registering trademarks, know-how, inventions, objects of copyright or other objects of intellectual property. Thousands of applications are filed with patent offices around the world every day, but the most common form of protection is a trademark .
Features of registration of a trademark
A logo, trade name, product name, domain name, slogan, etc. can be registered as a trademark. Start developing your own trademark, which will become an integral part of the brand of a startup company, preferably in parallel with the creation of a new project or product.To do this, you should carefully consider all the elements of the sign: words or letters, symbols, colors, fonts. Moreover, it is necessary to conduct market research and check whether such or similar mark has already been registered.
This kind of search can be entrusted to specialists or carried out independently, for example, here .
However, it is not enough to develop a design for a trademark - it must be registered. Registration of an enterprise of any form of ownership also does not protect the corporate name, because companies with similar names can coexist on the market, therefore, to protect the name of a startup company, it is also worth choosing to register a trademark.
The trademark registration procedure is quite lengthy. In Russia, for example, it takes 11-13 months. As a result, the owner of a registered mark receives the exclusive right to independently dispose of it, that is, to use, sell, authorize or prohibit the use, as well as to bring third parties to responsibility for violation of exclusive rights. Moreover, such legal protection will be valid only in the country or region where the mark was registered.
In order for a trademark to be protected in other countries, it is necessary to file appropriate applications for registration of the mark in each state or use the international registration procedure under the Madrid system, according to which it is enough to file one international application indicating all the countries of interest to a special body of WIPO.
To form a reliable brand, it is worth registering trademarks for each of its elements, that is, the trade name, logo, and names of all products. Thus, the owner will be able to provide protection for his young startup project and business in general.
Investments
Startup businesses are built on innovation and technology, and are often budget constrained. Startups require a lot of investment for future development. The unique name of a startup, consonant with its idea and direction of activity, is an excellent opportunity to declare yourself in the market.
For investors, the name of a startup is a kind of anchor for drawing attention to a specific project. It evokes associations with the activities and products of the startup, helps to make a decision to invest in it. The relationship between a startup and its name can be traced in the fact that when financing a startup, an investor decides to invest not only in the idea, but also in the brand under which such an idea is presented to the market. Therefore, registering the name of a startup or a specific project as a trademark is the first step to attracting investment.
A startup with a registered trademark is an indicator that this company pays attention not only to the development of its project, but also to ensuring its legal protection. Thus, in certain cases, the presence of a registered trademark can become an important factor in making an investor's decision on the advisability of investing resources in such a project.
Trademark as an intangible asset
A trademark is not only a means of individualizing a company and attracting consumers and investors, but also an important intangible asset, which is an element of the company's property complex as a whole. It will not be difficult to estimate the value of real estate or a car, since the tangible property market is filled with such proposals. The cost of a trademark is determined by the value and demand for goods and / or services that are presented on the market under this trademark.
Since the owner of a registered trademark has the right to dispose of it, he also has the opportunity to sell or grant the right to use his mark. For a promising product, the market value of a trademark usually significantly exceeds the value of the product itself and may even significantly exceed the book value of the company. That is, the more famous, original and popular a product protected by a trademark is, the higher the cost of such a mark will be.
Thus, the costs incurred in creating and registering a trademark will be negligible compared to the profits that can be obtained later.
How not to lose control of a startup
Usually a startup goes through several stages: first, a group of like-minded people gathers, then a company opens, and then an investor comes to the company. At this stage, most often the share of the founders of the company decreases significantly, because the investor, making a significant financial injection into capital, becomes the main owner of the company. At the same time, the contribution of the creators is estimated in the amount of the book value of the company, so their block of shares becomes non-controlling.
However, the presence of intangible assets can significantly increase the share of creators in the company's assets, and sometimes even equalize with the share of the investor. The cost of computer programs as copyright, database or trademark objects can be set by the owners of such objects. In fact, the investor does not invest in the company as a legal entity, but in the brand developed by the company, the embodiment of which is its intangible assets. Therefore, having properly registered intellectual property assets used as an intangible contribution to the company's capital will help the founders stay at the helm.
Startup, IT and foreign countries
As a rule, start-up projects are related to the field of information technology. Most of the founders seek to present their IT startup in the United States, since it is in America that not only crowdfunding is well established, but also business incubators are developed. Thus, an interesting IT project can receive decent funding and reach the international level faster.
As mentioned above, a trademark can serve as an indicator for investors that a startup is well-planned and that its creators are aware of the importance of protecting their intellectual property.
At the same time, in the USA it is possible to obtain protection for computer programs, databases or mobile applications by obtaining an inventor's certificate or patent for an invention. The procedure for considering a full application for an invention (non-provisional application) has strict deadlines and requirements, so many IT startups prefer to initially apply for registration (provisional application). It allows you to assign a priority to the applicant for 1 year and, so to speak, "freeze" the examination procedure. During this year, the applicant has the opportunity to find an investor and submit a full application, which will subsequently go through the standard registration procedure and apply for a patent. If the project turns out to be unpromising, and the full application is not submitted, then the preliminary application becomes invalid,and the applicant does not spend extra money on patent registration.
Implications of using an unregistered trademark for a startup
An unregistered trademark used by a startup company may be misused by third parties.
You can build a campaign to promote your brand for a long time, and increase the level of recognition not only of your own, but also of your unscrupulous competitors.
There are also frequent cases of cybersquatting, brand squatting and patent trolling, when interested persons are specifically looking for interesting ideas, submit them for registration, and then, at best, sell them to the real copyright holder. Since the legislation of most countries of the world is based on the concept of primacy of filing an application, it will be very difficult and costly to present a claim to the violator who first filed your idea for registration.
Moreover, if a startup project is export-oriented and contains a designation registered by another company in one or more countries of interest to you, your goods will be recognized as counterfeit by customs and confiscated. This may be followed by litigation, disputes, claims, recovery of damages and payment of compensation.
Registration of a trademark and other intellectual property objects will not protect against possible misuse, copying and production of your product, however, it will provide the right to demand the termination of such activity, as well as to bring third parties to responsibility for violation of your exclusive rights.