Trademark Surveillance Is A Necessity
Brand abuse does not, necessarily, mean counterfeiting. Trademark infringement can be equally damaging. Goodwill and reputation associated with the products and services of your company can tempt others into cashing in.
Unfortunately, there is no worldwide registration of trademarks. With rare exceptions, trademarks must be registered on a country-by country basis. Generally, the person registering the trademark should consider registering the trademarks as soon as possible in every jurisdiction considered for possible expansion.
In almost every legal jurisdiction in the world, there are very significant benefits that flow from trademark registration. With some limited exceptions for prior users in a number of countries, trademark registration will usually provide the registering party with the exclusive right to use the trademark in a particular jurisdiction for the goods or services covered by the registration.
Trademark offices in many countries do not perform an examination for prior registrations, and in those that do, the process is not always accurate. Furthermore, no country will search for or cite the rights of prior users. However, we need not look solely, to other countries to illustrate this problem. It also appears in the form of the respective Secretaryâs of State approving corporate formation under names, which hold federally secured trademarks. Accordingly, constant surveillance is necessary.
The best protection is early registration. While there are potential remedies for the owner of a trademark with international fame, if someone beats it to the filing process, such remedies are usually difficult to obtain.
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