I refer to having your brand registered as a trademark as your superpower. Now people sometimes ask me, “If I have a company name registered, a business name registered or a domain name registered, is that enough to protect me?” Surely that means that they’re entitled to use it, right?
Because they went out, did the right thing and got the registration. Sometimes they’ve been using it for many years, then some other person comes in and gets a trademark registered, and wants to stop this person who’s had a long time use of the brand as a company name or domain name. Unfortunately, the guy with the trademark is the one with a superpower, in law the trademark is the superpower. It’s stronger and it overpowers any of those other kinds of registrations.
Now, technically and theoretically the guy who’s used it earlier could get the registered trademark removed. But to do that, you have to go to court, tens of thousands, maybe even a hundred thousand dollars and who’s got that kind of money. Most of my clients who find themselves in that situation decide it’s just less stressful, easier and cheaper to rebrand. Even though they lose the name they’ve been using for 10, 15, or even 20 years. So trademark registration is your superpower, make sure you have it so that others can’t come and take advantage of you. My name is Cathryn Warburton, and I am the Legal Lioness.
