Your trademark is an intangible business asset that must be accorded equal attention as other classes of business assets. As soon as your trademark is registered, it's advisable to immediately take measures to protect it from various threats, including online infringement, which is currently on the rise. A trademark infringement can result in losing your rights, negatively impacting your brand and overall business performance.

Whereas the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) extends full ownership rights after successful trademark registration, this doesn't guarantee that dishonest individuals or enterprises won't misuse it. Unfortunately, prolonged and widespread misuse of your trademark can lead to a loss of rights when an interested party successfully argues that clients mostly associate it with their business.

The longer your trademark is infringed on, the more challenging and costlier it becomes to stop its misuse. Trademark infringement is so prevalent, and it's estimated that over 80% of businesses have had their trademarks misused. Technological advancements have presented us with a double-edged sword. For instance, despite the hard work put into developing your trademarks and various intellectual property, today, they can be infringed upon using minimal effort.

The most effective way to prevent trademark infringement is through monitoring. Trademark monitoring enables you to identify potential infringers and act at the earliest opportunity and is an effective method of protecting your intellectual property. Trademark Engine, among others, offers an effective way of protecting your business marks and other intellectual property from trademark infringement.

A trademark infringement is the unauthorized use of a business mark intending to confuse the market and taking advantage to sell similar goods or services.

Let's now consider other relevant details relating to trademark monitoring:

1. You Should Always Monitor Your Trademarks

The need to protect your intellectual property, including trademarks and other intangible business assets, cannot be overemphasized. Despite being granted legitimate ownership of your trademark by the USPTO, you must protect your business marks and track the registration of similar trademarks in the global economy.

Trademark monitoring enables you to prevent the infringement of your marks, allowing you to complain about similar marks filed for registration before the deadline of the opposition window. Trademark monitoring keeps off impersonators wishing to ride on the success of your brand to develop theirs, which can dilute your brand appeal.

Businesses exist to generate revenues and profits for their shareholders. Trademark monitoring is a revenue and profit protection strategy because pervasive trademark infringement often leads to consumer mistrust, shrinking sales volumes, and plummeting profits. In addition, taking corrective action when a trademark has been extensively violated over a lengthy period is more expensive and sometimes might be ineffective.

Sometimes, depending on the extent of infringement, you might even be forced back to the drawing board to create a new mark and register afresh. Again, you end up spending money you would have utilized elsewhere in the business. Trademark monitoring reinforces your brand image and position and saves you money.

2. Actions To Take When Someone Uses A Trademark Like Yours

Whereas there are various ways to make potential infringers aware of the trademark violation, including email or telephone calls, the most effective approach is getting an attorney to send a cease and desist letter on your behalf.

• Cease And Desist Letter

A cease and desist letter not only informs the infringing party about the violation of your rights but also demands an immediate stop to using or registering the trademark. And this is irrespective of whether the violation was unintended.

For a cease and desist letter to be legally effective, it must demonstrate the infringement and demand an immediate stop (cease). The letter must also demand that the concerned party doesn't resume its use or attempt registration (desist). In addition, the cease and desist letter must provide a response window and a firm deadline. Most letters provide a 10-days response period.

It's also critical to consider your delivery method when sending a cease-and-desist letter to prevent the other party from claiming ignorance about their misuse of your trademark. To guarantee they receive the cease and desist letter, consider sending an email copy and requesting an immediate response. Where there's none, engage the services of a courier company and keep your confirmation-of-receipt document safely in case you need to present it as evidence in a court of law.

• Legal Lawsuit

What happens when an infringing party ignores your cease-and-desist letter or responds that they are not in violation of your rights? When this happens, don't hesitate to talk to your attorneys about filing a trademark infringement lawsuit. However, your trademark must be filed and registered with the federal authority for a successful lawsuit. You'll also need to prove that you are the bona fide owner of the trademark. Further, you must show that the other party is illegally using your marks to confuse your clients for commercial benefit.

3. Common Tools For Trademark Monitoring

In addition to engaging the services of professional trademark monitoring services, you should also monitor your trademark regularly to reassure yourself that all is well with your intellectual property. You can use the following free online tools:

• Google search engine: With a 92% market share, this is the ideal tool to conduct periodic monitoring to ensure there's no infringement on your marks. It allows you to search through more than 3.5 billion databases at the touch of a button.
• Google alerts: Take charge by setting up this instant content detection service that sends notifications when your business marks are used online.
• Amazon trademark search: This is recommended if you have listed your products on the Amazon shopping platform. It brings up all listings with your brand name or logo and can quickly tell when someone is infringing your trademark to sell counterfeit products.

You should quickly seek the guidance of your professional trademark monitoring company if you come across a mark that resembles yours.

In Conclusion

All your registered business marks are business assets with integral value, and they must be protected. The cutthroat business environment we have today requires that you remain vigilant at all times. Monitoring your brand is critical for its sustenance. If you're in the process of registering a trademark, you should consider signing up with a trademark monitoring service as soon as it's registered.

However, it's never too late to get started if you already have registered trademarks but haven't started monitoring them. When you sign up for trademark monitoring with intellectual property attorneys committed to serving small businesses, you minimize the risks to your brand and market share without turning your focus away from the business.