When you’re thinking about starting to apply for a trademark, you might come across many different articles, suggestions and information that might confuse you due to the odd terminology.
If you’re not familiar with legal terms regarding trademarks, you’ll often feel lost and won’t know what to do next.
So, in this article, we will discuss some terms you should know if you’re applying for a trademark. That way, you’ll understand a little bit more about the technical aspect of the documents and you’ll know what to do to have an easier process.
Legal entity
When you apply for a trademark, you’re trying to get your business to become a legal entity like a corporation or LLC.
This means that your business will be legally constituted, have a physical address, different contact methods and will have to take care of any extra legal procedures in the future.
Drawing
In the field of trademark applications, a drawing of your mark is a visual way to describe your mark regardless of any products or services it’s attached to.
Depending on the type of format you’re using to apply, your drawing can include numbers and letters or a .jpg file.
Format
The format will include the main elements that will constitute your mark. There are three types of formats: standard character, special character and sound character.
The standard character allows you to apply for a trademark of any specific word, number or combination of these without any other special characteristic.
On the other hand, the special character allows you to also protect any specific design your brand has, like a font, symbol, words in a particular color, etc.
Finally, the sound character protects music and sounds that represent your brand.
Specimen
Including the specimen allows you to identify how you connect your brand to your goods or services.
In other words, it describes and shows the way the visual depiction and name of your brand connects with specific goods or services you sell.
To provide the specimen, you could send an audio or video file, pictures or even marketing brochures. It depends on the format of your mark and what you want to sell.
Goods or services
This pair is what will bring you money with your mark. However, you need to know what each of them are so you understand what to include in your trademark application.
Goods are products you sell. It includes any type of product you manufacture and gain revenue by selling them to other people.
Services, on the other hand, are specific activities you perform for others. For example, if you sell music notebooks, they’re goods, but if you’re a music teacher, they’re services.
Final thoughts
Applying for a trademark can often be confusing if you don’t know many terms the application includes.
People who’ve never gone through a legal process can feel confused because they don’t know where to start, and have no idea if they’re doing things properly or not.
Because of that, knowing some basic terminology regarding how to apply for a trademark is vital if you want to ensure a smooth process and guarantee that everything you put in your application is correct.
Are you looking to register trademark in Malaysia? Then, you might be interested in checking Trademark & Copyright MyIPO in Malaysia – Mandreel Agency.
Reference:
Mandreel Agency: Trademark (TM) & Copyright Registration in Malaysia
