When you are in business there are many requirements which you must abide by, and many legal and financial wrangling which you need to negotiate. The last thing that any company wants is to face legal issues, and require attorneys or court appearances, it is more than fair to say that this will not only be a pain, but it will also be bad for business. One simple aspect of business which many get wrong, is trademark issues. I was reading recently about a company in Minnesota who were forced to close because of the damage which a trademark case did to them, despite what their lawyers did for them. If you want to avoid trademark infringement, we spoke via email to expert legal mind David Baer attorney at law, to find out how.
What is Trademark Infringement
Officially trademark infringement is “the unauthorized use of a trademark or service mark on or in connection with goods and/or services in a manner that is likely to cause confusion, deception, or mistake about the source of the goods and/or services”. In layman’s terms, this basically says that you cannot use the name which is already in use, for your business or products.
Penalties
The penalties for trademark infringement will vary from state to state, but generally speaking they involve heavy fines. The fine will be decided after all of the information has been taken into consideration and in some cases, these fines can be huge.
Avoiding It
Researching the name which you have decided on for your product or business, is going to be the first step, before you launch it. In order to do this you simply need to contact your local legal firm, and have them check for any trademarks which exist already with those names. There are many details around trademark infringement and in some cases you can easily use the same name as someone else, providing you operate in different fields. The best way to avoid this however, is to avoid using any similar name which is already in existence. It is important to remember that a company name does not have to be trademarked in order for you to be penalized for trademark infringement.
Consulting Legal Help
Trademark law is very complex, it is based on the strength of the original mark, whether or not you have been deemed to copy or not, which industries the two marks operate in, which countries they operate in, as well as taking branding into consideration. As you can expect, this kind of law is littered with possible infringements and so the best thing that you can do is to have a great legal team on your side. Choose a legal team who are specialists in trademark infringement, and make sure that you check with them at every juncture should you feel as though you may be running risks.
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