Harness The Power Of A Trademark
In the inventing world, a lot of attention is paid to patenting. Often overlooked is the power of a trademark–a wonderful tool that can provide an incredible value when it comes to protecting your product or brand name.
But what’s the difference between a patent and a trademark?
While a patent protects utilitarian inventions–the design and function of the actual thing you create–a trademark identifies a source of goods or services like a product name, company name or brand.
A trademark, however, which costs a mere fraction of a patent to register, can be just as valuable, and they’re often easier and less cumbersome to enforce.
A trademark can become one of your company’s most important and valuable assets.
For example, consider all the brands you know, trust and prefer.
There are MP3 players, and then there’s the iPod. There’s ice cream, then there’s Ben & Jerry’s. There are beach shoes, then there are Crocs.
These trademarked names have immeasurable value, and they’re protected. You couldn’t open up an ice cream shop in your town and call it Ben & Jerry’s without a quick visit from a powerful lawyer.
Photo by pinow.
Jaclyn on February 16th, 2009 11:28 am
That was a very interesting article. i always’ wondered what the difference between a patent and trademark was, and i always’ thought that with a patent it meant no one else could make that product even similar to your’s…but now i understand that a trademark is the one that actually protects the product and the name of it.
T Edwards on February 16th, 2009 7:59 pm
Intellectual property protection is probably one of the most overlooked yet important factors that internet marketers must face. In building a “brand” it is imperative that we not only come up with a “face” for our businesses but protect our brands as well. In the near future, only the blogs that take this seriously will really prosper.
cassy on February 16th, 2009 8:33 pm
interesting post! trade mark is really important to every product,coz that makes them best for them and their protection from the imatation and from compitation to other product,that is why we have this law for intellectual property rights, as a product brand protection.
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