How to Protect Your Brand from Intellectual Property Theft?

What you are seeing above is a picture, snapped from the Twitter account, @TuesdayBassen, highlighting a classic case of intellectual property theft.

The story involves a small business vendor, illustrator and designer, Tuesday Bassen, who had her designs stolen by a retail behemoth — yes, you are reading this correctly — that went onto reproduce them under its own label.

Luckily, Tuesday had a loyal following who backed her up in her fight against the retail company, helping her regain possession of what originally belonged to her.

Brand theft may sound uncommon to some, especially the cases where an already established brand tries to run away with the credit by stepping onto a competitor of relatively smaller following, but cases like these happen and they will continue to happen.

Such is the cruel world of wild west.

So what can businesses do to protect their brand from intellectual property theft?

Before we get into that discussion, let’s first understand which brand elements qualify as intellectual property, so that you’ll know what you should be focusing on to protect.

Brand Elements that Can Get Stolen

Any element that adds value to a brand or is used in ‘branding’ a business, qualifies as intellectual property. This includes the name of a business, its slogan, logo, design theme and words associated with the brand.

Protecting Your Brand from Intellectual Property Theft

Coming to the question asked earlier, below we’ve compiled three suggestions, heeding to which, you can ensure your brand remains protected from the looming threat of intellectual property theft.

#1 Trademark your brand

Getting trademark rights for your brand helps protect its elements from being imitated and reproduced. If anyone still tries to do so, the law is there to protect you.

You can apply for a trademark by registering with the Intellectual Property Office.

Make sure that the trademark you are applying for hasn’t already been taken, or is not similar to existing trademarks as this is likely to result in objections and in some cases even the rejection of your application.

You can do so by clicking here.

#2 Link to a source

This implies making your brand element sound/look more complex rather than generic. For instance, if you sell football boots and have adopted a business name like‘Super Foot’, you can instead link it to a source and make it standout. Something like this: ‘Super Beck’s Super Foot’…

Alright, alright – a very poor attempt but you get the gist!

#3 Hire intellectual property agents

Intellectual property agents are agents who closely monitor markets to ensure that no one else is using a brand name, slogan or logo identical or similar to yours. If someone is, they would inform you and will guide you on what should be your next course of action. These agents are often licensed solicitors, so they are well versed in handling cases of infringement.

And well, that’s all to it: a little bit of homework, few mouse clicks and exercised vigilance.

No one can now steal your intellectual property and if they do, they’ll be doing at their own risk!

Do you have any other questions about protecting your brand from intellectual property theft?

Feel free to reach out; our solicitors would be happy to serve you.