Trademark Monitoring or Trademark Watch Service has become the new normal for existing brand owners. You've spent countless hours researching, developing, and implementing the ideal logo, name, design, tagline, monogram which constitute trademarks for your brand or business. Why wouldn't you put the same amount of effort into safeguarding it once it's been created by TM Monitoring with an experienced TM Agent/ Attorney?
TM Monitoring helps you not only in filing Trademark Opposition at the right time but also helps you understand if your brand has been infringed by other businesses. Your trademark is a unique identifier for your brand that helps consumers know which products are yours. Don't let counterfeit products and scammers (Trademark Infringement) take advantage of your hard work and harm your brand's image. Whether your brand is large or small, you will need an effective trademark monitoring strategy to ensure that your trademark and brand are well-protected.
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TM Monitoring/ Watch is an ongoing process of tracking filed, advertised, and accepted Trademark Registration applications to ensure that no deceptively similar marks to yours are being registered by others.
- TM Monitoring acts as a preventative measure, preserving brand equity and potentially saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue and costly trademark infringement lawsuits. Businesses frequently make the mistake of addressing trademark infringement only when it is brought to their attention. However, by that time, counterfeit products infringing on the trademark had already entered the market, negatively impacting the brand image that had been cultivated over many years.
- When there is a potential threat to be resolved, the trademark monitoring service searches the web for infringement cases and sends a timely alert to the brand. Trademark Monitoring can be done by a company or an individual, IP lawyers/Attorneys, or software that searches the internet for your trademark. However, trademark monitoring is a massive task.
- There are too many places to look on the internet for possible cases of trademark infringement or misuse. Personal websites may be difficult to locate. Furthermore, online marketplaces and social media platforms are common sites for trademark infringement, where counterfeit products are bought and sold in large quantities. Trademark monitoring services can search multiple sites globally and are significantly more efficient and effective (in terms of both cost and time) than manual scanning.
The first question that comes to mind after understanding Trademark Monitoring is when the trademark monitoring service is needed. The next heading discusses on this part.
It is a common misconception that only large corporations and businesses should be concerned about trademark infringement. As a result, regardless of the size of your company, your trademarks are likely to be infringed upon and misused on counterfeit products and goods. With the rise of e-commerce around the world, it has become easier to sell counterfeit products online, and this is a growing risk that businesses must be aware of. Trademark monitoring services are required in the following situations:
When a new trademark application is filed:
Although Governments provide trademark protection, they do not enforce potential violations. As a result, the burden of protecting intellectual property rights falls on the intellectual property owner. If you are concerned about competitors or other businesses registering a similar trademark to yours, a trademark monitoring service is a good option. It aids in keeping track of trademark applications that are similar to yours. Furthermore, it enables punitive action to be taken at the appropriate time.
To Detect Possible Trademark Infringement:
As corporate greed rises, brands are constantly competing for a larger market share. It becomes difficult to remove such a barrier in the absence of a dedicated mechanism to detect infringers. Trademark monitoring services can help businesses protect their trademark rights and customer base by weeding out imitators.
Difference between TM Monitoring and TM Watch Services
Many inexperienced players make the mistake of confusing trademark monitoring with trademark watching while performing trademark monitoring. Trademark monitoring differs from the watch service in that it tracks the progress of a specific trademark application. As a result, if you want to keep track of a specific trademark filing, trademark watching is the service to investigate and use. There is also a significant distinction between trademark monitoring and trademark searching. Trademark monitoring is done after the mark has been registered to look for any similar or identical marks that have been submitted to the registrar for registration. Trademark searching is done at the outset to see if there is already a similar registered mark or one that is pending before registration for the same class of goods and services.
Documents Required
Trademark Monitoring Service has drawn special emphasis for a long time now as many a times it has been found that even if there are potentially similar trademarks are in place, the Trademark Registry has Accepted & Advertised the TM Application. In such a situation, it becomes essential to have some experienced TM Agent/ Attorney who can look after the TM Journal and find out if there is need for filing TM-O for Trademark Opposition.
Below are the documents required in general:
- Registered TM Application Number
- Registered Trademark – Word/ Logo/ Monogram/ Design
- Defining Trademark Watch combinations or variations
- Review of Trademark Watch Report if any available
- Other documents to take steps when you find a conflicting mark
Procedure
In the absence of a comprehensive trademark monitoring strategy, infringement and counterfeiting can harm your brands and related products/services for a long time. Finally, considering the scope of the internet and technological advancements, organizations and individuals must stay abreast of new infringement methods and solutions. To protect the interests of trademark owners, the trademark monitoring process must not be stagnant. Although many individuals and organizations monitor trademarks in-house, it is best to outsource the task to a third-party service provider.
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Share details for Trademark Monitoring
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Hold Discussion with our Trademark Agents/ Attorneys
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Define all possible variations that are to be monitored
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Monthly Trademark Watch Reports to be shared by us
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Decide Actions (Oppositions) to be taken on Reports
Benefits of Trademark Monitoring
The following are some of the benefits of using a trademark monitoring service:
- Stops Trademark Dilution: Trademark dilution occurs when a trademark is used without the owner's authorization. The unrestricted and unauthorized use of a trademark seriously jeopardizes its uniqueness and novelty. Trademark dilution can take several forms, making it difficult to track and control. The trademark monitoring service helps to keep dilution at bay and prevents widespread imitation.
- Eliminates Trademark Infringement: Trademark monitoring searches the offline and online worlds for infringement cases and promptly alerts concerned businesses of a potential threat. The use of exclusive trademarks without the owner's consent/authorization or license constitutes trademark infringement. In today's interconnected and hyper-competitive world, trademark infringement cases are on the rise.
- Reduces the Cost of Legal Proceedings: In the case of trademark infringement, the hassle and cost of legal proceedings are extremely high. Early detection of infringement cases aids in the conservation of resources, including money in legal proceedings.
- Secures both present and future damage control: A low-value trademark at the bottom of the popularity list may command a much higher value in the future if demand rises. The trademark monitoring service assists in identifying such low-hanging trademarks with enormous potential. The service results aid in the development of a road map for mitigating potential present and future damages.
- Prevents impersonators, imitators, and knock-offs: Acquiring and retaining customers is a huge challenge for businesses, especially in this day and age when switching loyalty is common. One of the many methods for instilling brand loyalty in your customers is through careful brand cultivation. Once the belief is established, it is critical to keep impersonators, imitators, and knock-offs at bay by using a trademark monitoring service. Sustained monitoring assists in detecting imitators early on and taking corrective action before too much damage is done to the brand.
- Provides a Competitive Advantage: Trademark monitoring services provide valuable and actionable insight into your market competitors. During monitoring, you may come across new developments that will be critical in acquiring a new customer base for your brand. Furthermore, because a trademark is a strategic immaterial asset, it is necessary to track competitor progress in the same domain.
Now that you recognize the benefits of a trademark monitoring service, let's look at the disadvantages of not having a trademark monitoring plan in place.
Consequences of Not Having a Trademark Monitoring Plan
Ignoring a trademark for similar goods/services can result in irreversible harm to your previously distinctive mark. However, timely intervention by a trademark monitoring service could protect the distinctiveness of your trademark and prevent others from using it. As a result, a timely opposition may save both time and money. On the other hand, if trademark infringement is not stopped, consumers may associate the new mark with the registered trademark, resulting in revenue loss and harm to the business's reputation and goodwill. As a result, it is always advisable to engage in trademark monitoring activity on a regular basis in order to detect potential misuse of a registered trademark.
- Fault in Brand Uniqueness: Simply conceiving and developing a brand is insufficient to protect it from infringers and imitators. Once you've registered a memorable brand, it's critical to protect its distinctiveness through trademark monitoring. In the absence of a concrete trademark monitoring plan, rampant product imitation is a common phenomenon that leads to a fault line in your brand's uniqueness. Customers begin to switch loyalty when a brand loses its uniqueness, resulting in a loss of revenue and market value.
- Loss of Trademark Rights: Failure to monitor your trademark on a regular basis allows for unchecked use of your trademark. If this becomes widespread, the original trademark may cease to function as a brand identifier in some cases. Furthermore, unauthorized third-party use of your trademark for an extended period of time may erode your claim to the original trademark, and in the worst-case scenario, you may lose trademark rights. If the imitator is a competitor with similar products and services to yours, the situation becomes even more concerning.
- Brand Value Dilution: Brand building is a long-term process that requires careful planning and execution. A trademark is an essential component of any branding strategy. Unauthorized and frivolous use of a trademark, on the other hand, has a significant impact on the brand's value. Customers frequently decrease their interaction with a brand that is no longer considered worthy and novel. Other stakeholders, such as suppliers, creditors, borrowers, and so on, are also hesitant to enter into a long-term agreement with the business. Furthermore, brand dilution caused by a lack of trademark monitoring results in an unanticipated loss of revenue. Given the risks associated with not having a trademark monitoring plan, it appears to be a wise decision to take advantage of the service and its benefits.
Our Support
Compliance Calendar LLP team uses both traditional and unconventional resources to monitor potential infringement and help customers protect their valuable brand names. If you have any question, you are welcome to get in touch with us at info@ccoffice.in or connect at 9988424211.
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