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Just as registering a trademark is an important step to prevent others from using the same trademark for similar goods and services, protecting a brand is equally important because in this competitive market where trademark filings are constantly increasing there is a high possibility that someone else may think of a trademark name or image similar to your brand name. How do you know if one of these marks infringes on your trademark or brand?
This blog is about trademark monitoring services, including the benefits of trademark search, the drawbacks of not monitoring trademarks, the need for service, and much more. Let us begin by understanding what trademark monitoring means.
Trademark monitoring is a process that provides timely results of newly filled and recently published trademark details that may conflict with your registered trademark so that any necessary action can be taken against the infringer.
A time limit of three months is allowed to initiate trademark opposition proceedings after it first appears in the journal; this can also be extended to a maximum of four months; thereafter new application as a trademark in the chosen jurisdiction will be registered. Monitoring/Watch services help in identifying the conflicting marks earlier and preventing any misuse of the trademark.
Monitoring/Watch helps to fulfill different purposes, for example, if you want to track whether someone has infringed or is going to infringe your trademark name or image, or if you just want to track your competitor’s activities.
3 types of monitoring that provide different analyses of the mark are mentioned below.
Watch Service alerts you when it detects potential infringement trademarks and gives you vital information to defend your brand. Also, it helps you keep an eye on competitors’ trademarks and associated goods and services with the trademarks so that you can plan smart strategies to stay ahead in business.
Following are the various sources for conducting trademark or owner Monitoring/Watch:
Jurisdiction search: The Monitoring/Watch services can monitor the trademark name, design, or owner for all jurisdictions or any specific jurisdiction to find out all conflicting mark details that relate to your trademark. Monitoring/Watch searches can be done based on application dates, registration dates, and publication dates.
Business entities or trademark name search: Monitoring/Watch services monitor active business entities or trademark names operating in the states of a particular country.
Domain name registrations: Trademark Monitoring/Watch services provide information on new domain name registrations to ensure that no one is registering a similar trademark name.
Internet Search: Trademark Monitoring/Watch services monitor various platforms (social media websites, marketplaces, etc.) on the Internet for accounts that use your trademark without your permission.
Protection of Trademark: With trademark monitoring, businesses may identify any unauthorized use of their trademarks by third parties. By doing this, they can stop any additional unauthorized uses of their trademark and take the appropriate action to cease the infringement of it.
Prevent Trademark Dilution: Failing to regularly monitor a registered trademark can hamper the brand’s reputation and potentially lead to its dilution. By using trademark monitoring to keep an eye out for it, owner can take action to prevent trademark dilution. With the help of trademark monitoring, such dilution cases can be prevented.
Early Identifies Trademark Infringement: Trademark monitoring enables companies to swiftly detect any suspected infringement-related activity, enabling early infringement identification. This has significant importance, as the longer a violation is unreported, the more challenging it will be to resolve and the more harm it could potentially do to the company.
Reduce the risk of time and expense loss: Legal actions involving trademark infringement are very time-consuming and expensive. Early infringement case detection helps with resource conservation, including the court expenses.
Secures Present and Future Damage Control: A trademark with a low initial value that ranks at the bottom of the popularity list could become significantly more valuable in the future if there is an increase in demand.
The trademark monitoring service helps identify these overlooked trademarks with substantial growth potential. The insights provided by the service contribute to creating a strategy for addressing potential current and future risks.
Preventing imitators from misusing: In a world where there are a lot of new and developing businesses, getting customers’ attention is a difficult task. One of the best methods to foster brand loyalty is through careful brand cultivation. Trademark monitoring assists in deterring impersonators, mimics, and knockoffs once brand equity has been established. By keeping an eye out for possible imitators, you may take quick corrective action before too much harm is done.
Keep an eye on your competitors: Owner monitoring provides information about your competitors worldwide. While keeping an eye out, one might notice recent advancements that could be crucial in getting customers to notice your business. Given the importance of a trademark, it is vital to investigate the advancements made by rivals in the trademark space.
Maintain your reputation: Businesses can make sure that their brand is exclusively linked to the goods or services that are associated with them by monitoring the trademark. This helps maintain the reputation of the brand and the trust of the customer.
Not keeping an eye on your trademark has a number of drawbacks. You can end up losing all of your trademark rights as a result of this. For instance, if other parties begin using trademarks that are similar to yours in connection with comparable goods or services and you do nothing, the trademark will lose some, if not all, of its value. Your rights may be entirely lost since the trademark will no longer serve as the market’s source identifier, weakening it.
You may also lose money if you fail to keep an eye on your trademark. In the event of a significant infringement, your company might collapse entirely. You must continually keep an eye out for trademark infringement if you want to prevent this. You must take legal action, perhaps by issuing cease and desist letters, if you discover any infringement related to your trademark. In addition, you have the option to pursue opposition and cancellation procedures through the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board or by taking other suitable legal action under the circumstances.
Wissen Research has over 6 years of experience in Trademark Monitoring/Watch services, where we have delivered over 600 Trademark and Owner Monitoring/Watch reports to its clients worldwide till now and is still working on 820 monitoring projects.
We serve Monitoring/Watch reports on four delivery modes: weekly, fortnightly, monthly, and quarterly, so that our clients can take the necessary action against the infringer at the right time.
We use the following steps and monitoring databases to identify any conflicting marks and protect your legal rights:
