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Written by : Florentino Koppelmann |
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hi I'm Andre mink of the founder of trademark factory the only firm in the world where licensed lawyers and trademark agents will help you trademark your brand's with a free comprehensive trademark search for single all-inclusive flat fee with a hundred percent money-back guarantee and today's question that I'm going to answer is what is conventional priority so conventional priority this really cool idea that allows you to file a trademark in one country and have a six month grace period during which you can jump ahead of everyone else who falls for the same trademark in other jurisdictions so this is how this works so let's say you're based in the US and let's say that you're filing your u.s. trademark on January the 5th ok let's say you're not filing in any other country so you filed your u.s. trademark on January the 5th and the USPTO and you're just using the brand so let's say there's somebody else that's called a mean Company Inc they file the same trademark in Canada in April so they're in Canada they're the first in line because you haven't filed in Canada and Canadian trademarks office does not know about you they don't care about you they don't care about your trademark and all they care about is what's been filed with them so but let's assume that you've been filed your canadian trademark the same trademark only in Canada May 31st right so you're the second online in Canada but your application will say and of course I'm paraphrasing it's going to say something like don't think about this as our May 30th application think about this as our January 5th applicant because that's when we filed the identical trademark in the US and then the Canadian Trademark Office is going to look at your application and have a look at that doesn't say oh actually what that means is that mean company's trademark that they father April is now not the first in line it's actually the second in line so we should kick it out and give way to your trademark application so what this is called conventional priority because this six months grace period was invented and written into Paris Convention which is a trademark treaty international trademark treaty joined by most countries on the planet and Canada is part of that he was part of that and like said most countries are a part of that so that allows you to do is get some flexibility when you have six months to test your business to try it out to make sure that you're getting traction to give yourself a little bit more cash flow flexibility so that when the six months window is about to shut down then you can file your trademark and all the other jurisdictions that you want to protect your brand so if you know that your business is going to go think if you know that your brand has value those jurisdictions you don't have to wait and we recommend that you don't wait but if you you're not sure but you're thinking that it could be a good idea to protect it in both countries what you can do is start with your own country and then add other countries within the six-month window this is just one of many short videos where I'm providing one point short specific no BS answers to your questions about trademarks so subscribe now and make sure that you're the first to get notified whenever the next video goes live and if you have a brand that you want to protect order your free comprehensive trademark search with register ability opinion by filling out the form at 3tm search.com free TM start calm and we'll take you from there see you in the next video
Thanks for your comment Suzanne Kuning, have a nice day.
- Florentino Koppelmann, Staff Member
if you're an entrepreneur trying to grow your business and if you haven't trademarked your brand there's one thing you need to know without a file trademark application you're wasting your time money and energy building a brand that you can either never own or that someone can take away from you at any time if someone had already trademarked a brand similar to the one you have in mind you're essentially building someone else's brand just a matter of time before they notice you and force you to rebrand and pay them every dime you made under what turns out to be their brand or even more or you may be lucky and your brand is still trademarkable today but guess what this doesn't mean it will be available tomorrow thousands of trademark applications are filed every day any one of these trademark applications could easily crush your hopes for your brand's future what's worse is that literally every single day you pass up on protecting your brand you expose yourself and your business to more and more of these risks but of course if you don't believe you can build a truly successful business i'll be the first to tell you you don't need to trademark your brand not now not ever after all a brand with no potential to help people find your business help them remember your offer so that they come back or encourage them to buy from you is not worth trademarking but if that's the case you should take it one step further and ask yourself why have a brand like this at all assuming that's not you assuming that you value your brand or what you hope to make of it in the future let me give you five reasons why trademarking your brand should be your number one priority as a business owner number one trademarking takes a long time on average it will take over a year for your trademark to go through all stages from filing to registration it means that if you think you might need a trademark in six months you're already half a year too late number two there are no other legal ways to protect your brand incorporating your company registering an llc registering a domain name a bunch of social media profiles copyrighting your logo putting a tm sign next to your name none of this will protect your brand it's common sense freely if it was possible to securely protect your brand without trademarks companies and entrepreneurs like you wouldn't be filing millions of trademarks every single year it's not that they don't know about the tm symbol and corporations or domain names it's precisely because they know that none of it works that they file their trademarks number three if someone files a trademark application to protect a brand similar to yours even one day before you do you may be forced to rebrand notice that i said similar their brand doesn't even need to be the same as yours also notice that i said that even if they filed their trademark a day before you could be toast they don't even need to have it registered you know with real estate they always say location location location well with trademarks it's timing timing timing whoever does it first wins number four if you're considering selling licensing franchising or expanding your business forget about it if you don't have your brand trademarked at best someone's going to grab your company for pennies on a dollar because your valuation is going to take a massive hit in many cases you will not be able to find investors franchisees licensees or buyers for your business at all and again remember the trademarking process takes a year on average number five if you have a registered trademark you can quickly and effectively deal with infringement of your brand on online platforms like amazon youtube facebook and pretty much all others all you need to do is provide them with the number of trademark registration certificate give them a link that shows infringing use and they'll take care of everything on your behalf but this only works for trademarks that are already registered so if you care about your online reputation and in today's world everyone should getting your brand trademarked is no longer optional it's no longer something you can't afford to think about it's a must-have now one last thing don't think that i'm saying all this because i'm in the business of selling trademarking services trust me if you choose not to trademark your brand through trademark factory i'll still be okay with over 700 000 trademarks filed in the us alone in 2020 there are enough brand owners out there who value their brands enough business owners who want to get their trademarks done right on the other hand if someone snatches your brand from under your nose how would you feel knowing you could have trademarked it today but chose not to do it what will you do when you wake up one day to a demand letter claiming you don't own what you thought was your brand a brand you pour your heart and soul into a brand you've invested time money and energy in my name is andre minkoff i'm the founder of trademark factory i've been working in the field of intellectual property for over 20 years and i've heard too many heartbreaking stories like that over my career don't become part of the sad statistic jump on the trademarking train today factory you
Thanks Marcus your participation is very much appreciated
- Florentino Koppelmann
About the author
I've studied business administration at Meharry Medical College in Nashville and I am an expert in ecology (outline). I usually feel guilty. My previous job was coatroom and dressing room attendants I held this position for 8 years, I love talking about softball and fish keeping. Huge fan of TikTok I practice cycling: road and collect disney pin trading.
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