Are you looking to start your own wedding planner business or expand your already existing wedding planner business? If so, you should take active steps to protect your business’ intellectual property. To ensure that your business flourishes and is distinguishable from your competition, it will have intellectual property in some form or another.
We recognise, however, that identifying and protecting your business’ intellectual property can be challenging. It can also fall towards the bottom of your priority list. You should be prudent in protecting your intellectual property for your wedding planner business, as it will be the catalyst for prosperity and growth.
What is the intellectual property?
The terms commonly associated with intellectual property can sound like a foreign language. And you may not know or understand the differences between a patent, copyright and a trademark. Although intellectual property can be an especially complex area of law, we can help simplify it for you and your business. We at LegalVision have written on what constitutes intellectual property, how to protect it and how to monetise your intellectual property to help best answer questions our clients ask.
Where should I begin?
You will first need to prioritise what intellectual property requires immediate protection. It is highly likely that your business’ most valuable and vulnerable piece of intellectual property is your trademark business name and/or logo.
A trademark is any mark, letter, word, number, diagram, picture, scent or colour used by your business to separate your product from that of another. Trademarks effectively act as a beacon for your customers or potential customers, to denote that the work that was done or the product received is of a quality that only you can produce. Protecting your business’ trademark is a good place to start.
Continue reading this article below the formHow do I protect my trademarks?
Trademarks do not attract automatic protection in Australia. To protect your business’ trademark, you will need to register it with IP Australia. If your trademark is accepted, the date of protection will be the original filing date for registration. For example, if you filed your trademark application tomorrow and it was successful, it would receive protection from tomorrow onwards.
The process is not, however, immediate and other businesses can contest your trademark’s registration if they feel it is similar to their already existing trademark. It is strongly advised that you seek legal advice before beginning the registration process to guide you through the process and enable you to clarify any questions you may have.
Conclusion
If you are looking to start your own wedding planner business or expand your already existing wedding planner business, we can assist you with protecting your intellectual property. You should prioritise what requires immediate protection to help you create and preserve your business’ competitive edge.
Applying for trademark registration is a critical first step in protecting your wedding planner business’ intellectual property. The registration process can be long and arduous so it is advisable you seek legal advice before starting the process. LegalVision’s experienced trademark lawyers would be delighted to assist you and answer any of your questions so please get in touch on 1300 544 755.
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