Customers' perceptions and feelings about your business, products and services jointly shape your brand image. How can you ensure that the brand you have spent your efforts and money to build is not infringed? Today we will talk about how to protect your brand in Canada.

The value of a brand is more than just its image

Building a brand image is a very important part of marketing.

Your brand name, product and service names, slogans, logos, taglines and even sound marks – together create the brand image your customers know.

A distinctive brand will help you stand out from similar competition and help increase your customer loyalty. In fact, as time goes by, customers gradually recognize, understand, accept, recommend, and become loyal to your brand, which will create additional value for your business. The value is that you can even use it to negotiate with banks and other lenders.

The importance of trademarks to sales

Protecting your brand and the products and services it represents is critical to your future sales efforts. A trademark is an important part of your brand, and registering one will give you exclusive rights to sell your products and services.

Trademarks include letters, words, logos, product and service names, slogans, etc. If you fail to protect your trademark, competitors can use your trademark or a similar trademark, confusing your customers.

Five reasons to register a trademark

1. After registering a trademark, it is legally stated that the trademark belongs to you.
2. It gives you the exclusive right to use the mark in Canada for 15 years (which you can renew indefinitely).
3. It prevents others from using confusingly similar marks.
4. It allows you to report copyright infringement by others.
5. It gives you the right to specify who can use the trademark and in what scope, and you can use it to make money and increase brand awareness.

Search for existing trademarks

Before registering a trademark, you need to make sure that your trademark is different from other trademarks. If you have found a trademark that is suitable for your business, the first step is to search the Canadian trademark database to see if it is available. This way you avoid investing time, money and effort into a trademark that may not be available in Canada.