Business

The Small Business Benefits of Registering As a Trademark

Registering As a Trademark

When people open a business, everyone advises to prepare for failure, for sleepless nights and hardship, but few people rarely prepare themselves for growth and, as a consequence, let important things slide out of sight and can cost more in the future. One of these things is the registration of a trademark. 

On average, the cost of registration can be high, since the government fee is $350 and you’ll need a lawyer to guide you through. This can escalate the trademark price to over $1,000. Not petty cash and a real sacrifice for a new company. Yet, there are many advantages to going through the process. 

This is something that you should invest in if you mean business and you can put it in your profit and loss statement (P&L), have it as part of the initial investment, or even recur to small business loans to help you finance it. In the long run, you’ll see this investment pay off. 

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Advantages of a trademark register

Though there is not a law against registering your brand after you start your company’s operation, planning for a bright future always bodes well. In doing so, not only will you formalize your company as more than self-employment, but you will also be shooting for the stars from day one. 

Protect your product or service

If you are inventing a product, a service, or even a methodology, you can protect it so no one else can use it and you’ll remain the only one with that particular value offer. This will mean that your clients will return to you for further business and that you’ll have an advantage over the competition to make a better profit. 

Protect your intellectual and artistic property

Imagine that you invent something, no matter how silly it is. Would you like it if someone else bought it from you cheap, reverse engineered it, and sell it more expensive and in bulk? Or that you created an amazing logo for your company and all of a sudden someone else across the country is using it for another company. Trademarks allow you to keep those assets in your power and stop other people to profit from them. 

Cheaper in the long run

You’ll only need to register a trademark once, but it can save you a lot of headaches. On one side, you can stop other people from making a profit with it and the paperwork of the trademark will be proof that you create this particular brand first. On the other hand, if someone sues you for using your property because they claim it’s theirs, you have proof too that it’s yours. Neat and simple: an investment in the future. 

Representation, distribution, and other ways to grow

You can use your trademark to recreate your business elsewhere as an asset via franchise, distributors, or other business models that allow you to make a profit without having to operate the business or make a big investment yourself. You can offer the know-how and trademark for royalties and in this way, keep making a profit out of it. 

Requirements for registering your trademark

Take into account what you’ll need as a base:

  • Identification of the owner.
  • Proof of citizenship status.
  • Application filled out with specification of your intent to use the trademark. An example could be Royale nail polish: for the manufacturing, distribution, and commercialization of nail polishes. 
  • An example of your work.

At first glance, you could think of trademark registration as a waste of time and money, but there are also quite a lot of benefits you can harness from it. If you are already thinking about small business loans, you should take trademarks as another expense in your financial projections. Are you ready to file your trademark registration?

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