Establishing your own brand and making your company seen, known & respected in the marketplace requires following systematic strategies. By consistently using your business name for quality business activities, shown clearly on all your products, advertising, website pages, social media, transaction receipts etc; your business will gain and maintain a positive image and awareness. However, before you start putting your company name or brand out there, it’s prudent to register them as a Trade Mark first. It doesn’t cost that much to register a TM, and the registration lasts for 10 years before you have to pay again to renew, so it’s pretty good “value for money” and will probably be a much smaller expense than many other or your “costs of doing business”.
Trade Mark legislation is a fascinating field and occasionally epic battles over Trademark allowability or ownership rage through the courts and media reports.
One of the interesting quirks of Trademark legislation in Australia (and most other countries are similar) is that you can’t just register a trademark, you have to be seen to be using the Trademark frequently. (This is to stop people registering a TM that they don’t want to use themselves but want to hinder other people from using).
