What is the importance of trademarks?

A trademark is any sign that individualizes the goods or services of an enterprise and distinguish them from the good or services of the other similar goods or services available in the market or in simple language it is anything that helps in differentiating a product in the ocean of similar or same category of products.

Trademark protection in Vietnam 

Although it is not mandatory and is most often ignored by the entrepreneurs but it remains one of the most important asset of any business.

Some of the important reasons are.

An important tool for effective communication: It is a proven fact that an average consumer identify and remember any brand more easily and effectively through its logo. Your mark can convey intellectual and emotional messages about you, your company, its products or services. A mark need not be a word to be identifiable. It can be a symbol, sign or combination of colours etc. Like “swoosh” design of Nike is recognized worldwide although it doesn’t have any word on it.

Trademark enables your customer to locate you: In this open economy the market place is crowded and consumers have too many options for one single product or service. Trademark proves to be an efficient tool to capture consumer’s attention and make your products and services stand out. Consumer viewing a trademark immediately know who they are dealing with. Often reputation of a particular trademark play a critical role in customer’s purchasing decision.

Trademark facilitates to effectively utilize the internet and various social media platforms: We all very well know how important is to have an online presence in this era. Your brand name is the first thing any customer enters into google or social media site like Facebook, twitter to know about your products and services and basis his decision on the published information.

Trademark is a valuable asset: A trademark fall under class of intangible asset and can appreciate over time. The value of any trademark is directly co-related to the reputation of business. Trademark paves the way for expansion from one industry to another. For example - Titan the homegrown brand for watches has become so popular over time and they used the same trademark to launch their eyewear range in recent past. It helped people to attribute same trust to this newly launched brand which titan watches have and this helped in boosting the company’s ambition for expansion. Trademarks similar to real estate can be bought, sold, licensed or at times used as security interest to secure a loan for your business.

Trademarks are perpetual (i.e they never expire) : Unlike other forms of intellectual property, trademark can exist for entire life of your business provided you renew it after every 10 years.

Source: Quora