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Safety, Products and Liability: A Legal Blog

Welcome to my blog. This blog is dedicated to helping anyone who is currently in the midst of a liability issue. A few years ago, my daughter contracted listeria due to poorly packaged food. She, thankfully, was okay, but we still took her case to court. I want all families who have been affected by liability issues to understand their rights, so I decided to start this blog. My beautiful daughter is now 17 and preparing to start uni next year. I have three younger children as well and an amazing husband. Thank you for reading my blog. Please share my posts if they help you!

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Safety, Products and Liability: A Legal Blog

Business Trade Marks: Tips on Protecting Your Rights

by Liesanne Martin

The trade mark is a valuable asset for your business that provides a sense of identity for your products. In simple terms, trade marks can help you establish brand identity and serve as marketing tools that help new customers to easily recognise your merchandise. If you have registered your chosen trade mark, you will need to protect the design or logo from removal or infringement by other companies. Proper protection will help you gain better commercial advantage and prevent legal battles over trade mark ownership.

Display Your Mark

It is important to show the trade mark on your product visibly for your competitors and customers to see. In addition, it is important to add the registration symbol ® or (R) so that business operators will know that the mark is legally recognised. If someone uses your trade mark on their products, you will have a good defence if the business claims ignorance.

Keep in mind that your trade mark can be cancelled if you are not using it on your products. Simply speaking, using your trade mark after registration helps to maintain your rights, providing a useful form of protection against infringement and invalidation. You should note that you are responsible for defending your trade mark if another company applies for cancellation of your registration.

Trade Marks Online

When you start trading through online stores, you will be in the global marketplace. You should note that there are no world trade marks, so registering your mark in Australia will not protect you worldwide. If you provide goods to another country, and someone in that country owns the rights to your design, you can be sued. You can protect your business by following the protection guidelines provided by the World Intellectual Property Organisation. Basically, this involves registering your trade mark in the global scene. If you have not taken such steps, you should seek legal advice on minimising the risks before starting online trading.

Monitor the Market

You should take proactive steps to ensure that another company does not infringe your trade mark. Generally, this means that you will need to monitor the market for new trade marks and compare them with your own. You can even hire an intellectual property expert to scan the official IP Australia database for similar symbols periodically. This is an important practice because conflicts are not always apparent during the examination of a new trade mark. Therefore, you are legally entitled to raise your opposition. For help with any of these legal issues, contact a trade mark attorney.

 

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