Brand watch and Trademark monitoring
Trademark registration protects against both identical and similar brands. It gives the owner of the registered trademark the legal right to send "cease and desist" letters to businesses that are already open and to fight against new applications for trademark registration. But it is up to the owner to keep an eye on and fight these similar and exact brands. In this case, trademark tracking is a highly suggested service that makes sure the brand is unique. There are different types of property - Trademark monitoring that vary in what they do and how well they do it.
The IPOs will let you know about similar rights automatically.
In the EU (EUIPO) and the UK (UKIPO), if a very similar brand is registered, the intellectual property offices send a notice to the owners of registered trademarks. The different IPOs do this type of tracking of trademarks for no extra cost. The intellectual property offices get to decide how far this security goes and what factors they use.
Services for keeping an eye on trademarks
Several providers of brand security services, including EuTrademark, offer dedicated and continuous trademark tracking services. The price of a monitoring service usually varies on how many countries and groups it covers.
This kind of trademark monitoring service usually looks at all newly filed trademark applications and, based on how the customer wants it set up, notifies them if someone files a trademark that is the same or similar to theirs.
This means that the owner of the registered trademark can question and oppose similar trademarks during the opposition time and stop them from getting registered.
Keeping an eye on markets, social media, managing websites, and their use for business
The two types of trademark tracking we've mentioned previously mainly focus on monitoring new trademark applications. These services are dedicated to identifying similar or identical brand names and logos that are newly registered or pending approval, thus enabling existing trademark owners to raise objections during the application process.
However, these methods fall short in terms of monitoring potential trademark violations that could occur in the context of everyday business activities.
This comprehensive trademark tracking is executed by scanning vast amounts of data from these varied sources. Advanced algorithms, coupled with machine learning and artificial intelligence, are typically employed to sift through this data.
The goal is to detect potential violations swiftly and accurately, whether they're cases of identical trademark misuse or nuanced similarities that could lead to brand confusion. This vigilant monitoring ensures that a brand's intellectual property rights are respected and protected across a wide range of platforms and contexts.