Your brand may consist of your logo, business name, slogan, a picture or icon or a combination of these, all of which are known as trademarks. The main purpose of a trademark is to distinguish a company from its competitors.

Why should businesses get a trademark?

An Australian trademark registration provides the registered owner with the right to use, and prevent other people from using the trademark in Australia for a period of 10 years (with the possibility for it to be renewed indefinitely). The value of your trademark is obviously tied to the success of your company. 

If you chose to trade without a registered trademark, you will risk a competitor using a brand that is the same or similar to yours, or a competitor registering a trademark that prevents you from continuing to trade under your business name. In the worst case you may damage your reputation in the market or be forced to rebrand and therefore incur the cost of repurchasing marketing collateral. 

There would be nothing worse than going through the process of creating an amazing brand and purchasing merchandise and marketing materials only to find out that another business owns the right to use that brand name or image in your marketplace. By undertaking a trademark search before you go and spend valuable start up money on your brand, you can reduce the risk of burning through marketing dollars, by ensuring that your new brand is available to use in the marketplace. 

What are the benefits or why should you engage with a lawyer to provide a trademark search?

When starting a new business or launching a new product or service, it is crucial to engage a lawyer before you have committed significant time, resources and money to a particular brand. 

Our team have the experience to assist businesses with:

• Trademark advice, search and registration 
• Trademark renewals 
• Drafting and filing of trademark applications
• IP acquisition or disposal
• Licensing, assignments and other commercial arrangements
• Responding to and/or defending against trademark disputes and claims
• Enforcing trademarks and other IP in circumstances of infringements

How is H+A Legal shaking up the traditional legal framework and empowering businesses to make better decisions?

The harsh reality is that around 50% of SME’s don’t survive the first 3 years of business.

A contributing factor to this statistic is a perceived disconnect between lawyers and their clients caused by an outdated framework of engagement and an uncertainty around costs. 

This got us to thinking. Why could legal advice not be as simple and flexible as a phone plan or streaming subscription?  

We came up with a solution. We built a subscription-based service model that is clear, simple and flexible. We call this service LawPlan.

We kick things off with a Deep Dive session into your business to understand your business structure, goals and identify any potential risks. We then create a step-by-step plan to help you navigate the peaks and troughs of the business cycle, whilst ensuring you are continuously making informed business decisions that align with your vision.

A plan is only as good as it’s execution. We keep you accountable with monthly check-ins, during which we review what action has been taken, plan the next steps, and provide you with a boardroom-like arena to thrash-out business challenges and opportunities. 

Business owners often want and need legal advice, though are hesitant due to the uncertainty of costs.  Like 55 KNOTS, we offer our LawPlan subscription in affordable monthly instalments, allowing businesses to anticipate and budget their legal costs. LawPlan promotes proactive solution responses, rather than reactive (and, often very costly) solution responses to business decisions. 

Need help with a trademark? Check our H+A Legal for more information today!