Trademark

It is always registered for specific classes of goods and services, not in general. That means the same name can legally exist in another field, and equally your mark only protects you where you registered it. It is territorial too: a Slovak mark covers Slovakia, an EU mark the whole union. Proceedings take months, during which anyone can file an opposition, and the mark is then renewed every ten years.

Why it is settled before the logo, not after: a database search costs a few hours of work, while redoing a logo, packaging, website and vehicle livery costs ten times more. A company that filed only after two years of trading found someone else had registered the name in the same class in the meantime. It had to rename and lost what it had built under the old one.

How to proceed: start by checking the office's public database yourself for your classes of interest. Then bring in a lawyer, because judging the similarity of two signs is a matter of interpretation rather than search. You supply the exact wording, the list of goods and services and the final logo, because changing it after filing means filing again.

What it does not solve: a trademark protects neither an idea nor a product's design, there are other instruments for those. It does not secure a domain either, that is registered separately, although a registered mark is a good argument in a dispute. And registration alone deters nobody, rights have to be enforced, which costs time and money. For a small company in one market it is sensible to register the main name rather than pay for ten classes in reserve.

On every naming job we check the database before the first logo sketch. It is the dullest step in branding and it has saved more projects than any creative idea. Try it today: look your name up in the public trademark database and see who holds it in related classes.