The purpose of a trademark is to protect your business’s brand identity in the marketplace. To use another shoe company as an example, the Nike trademark of check mark with sharp edges lets people know that the shoes they’re about to buy were designed and made by the Nike company.

If a company begins selling shoes with check mark with round edges, people could easily think those shoes also are Nike shoes. Not only does Nike lose money from the lost sale, but they also lose consumer confidence, if the similar looking shoes are inferior in quality. The law says that your trademark is infringed upon when another company’s brand elements are similar enough to confuse consumers. Infringing companies must stop using the similar trademark.

To sum it up, here are the advantages of having your trademark registered with the government:

• logo helps you to protect your business identity
• it protects you against others using the same or similar trademarks
• provides “concrete proof” of your legally protected rights
• this removes the need to rely on “common law” rights (passing off).
• protects against others who trade in the same, but defective goods/services
• it may be licensed, may be franchised or may be sold