Choosing a trademark for a product, service, or domain, might sound easy enough, with just a few criteria, such as making sure it’s memorable, catchy, short, and representative of the ‘DNA’ of the business. The trademarks that your corporations choose might sound brilliant for marketing, but they might be not so smart from a legal standpoint.

If the trademark of your product or service is found to be identical or imitating the trademarks of other businesses that have already been registered, then your corporations are at risk of being sued. This would inevitably lead to spending a significant amount of money and losing them. As we currently live in the digital era where information travels in no time, the chance of risks to occur also increases. Therefore, corporations need to conduct trademark investigations and to register their trademarks before using them to avoid such risks.

The basics of trademark registration

If your company is in Indonesia, the easiest way to determine whether a trademark that is identical to yours has been registered is by checking the database of the Directorate General of Intellectual Property, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of Indonesia (DJKI). The registrants’ names, their address, product classification, trademark logo, registration date, and registration expiration date, the identity of the party which registered the product will be revealed by the database.

The basic principle of trademark registration in Indonesia is first-to-file. The exclusive rights of a trademark belong only to the first entity that filed the brand. Many trademarks have been submitted for registration, but there are already similar or same trademarks that have already been registered. Even so, the registered ones are not necessarily on the market (non-use).

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How to Claim a Registered Trade Mark?

If any identical trademarks are registered

A registered trademark may be canceled if the mark has not been used for three consecutive years in trade in terms of goods and/or services from the date of registration or use. If that case happens, then your corporations still have a chance to register the trademark as long as they are proven to be not circulated during the given periods. To provide the evidence, your company needs to do a field survey.

For such a case, a trademark investigation is indeed time and energy-consuming. Hence, your corporations are strongly advised to use a trademark investigation service. Integrity is ready to assist your corporations in safeguarding assets by conducting trademark investigations (non-use).

The survey will also be focused on stores related to the usage of the product. While conducting the survey, a statement letter explaining the inexistence of the product is usually prepared. The letter will be given to the visited store to get the signed statement, and it will be required later to register the trademark. The results of the field survey and investigation given by Integrity Indonesia will help clients to manage and protect their assets.

For more information on trademark investigations, contact us today.

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