In Short
- Protect your restaurant or hotel brand with trade marks to secure your name, logo, and unique features.
- Monitor and enforce your intellectual property rights to prevent unauthorised use.
- Consider other IP protections, such as copyright and design registration, for broader brand security.
Tips for Businesses
Secure your brand by registering trade marks early to protect your restaurant or hotel’s name and logo. Regularly monitor for infringements and enforce your rights to maintain your brand’s value. Explore additional IP protections, such as copyright and design registration, to strengthen your brand’s security.
Table of Contents
As a restaurant or hotel owner, your brand is essential to successfully differentiating your business from competitors. Consumers will often choose the restaurant or hotel they patronise based on the impression that branding gives them. Intellectual property rights can ensure that you are the only one who uses your unique marketing, recipes, processes and creative work. Neglecting your intellectual property can result in others profiting from your work and reputation. By safeguarding your brand, you can ensure that consumers are aware of the quality and the uniqueness of your restaurant or hotel.
This article will explain three key ways of protecting intellectual property for your restaurant and hotel brand.
Trade Marks
A trade mark is a form of intellectual property right that gives you brand ownership. Your trade mark will ensure that nobody else can use your branding to market their products or services. You can register a trade mark for things like:
- logos: the ‘Marriott’ logo is a registered trade mark; and
- slogans: no business other than McDonalds can use ‘I’m lovin’ it’.
Benefits of Trade Mark Protection
Benefits of trade mark protection include:
- excluding competitors from using your particular branding on their products. This means that when customers see your hotel logo, they know they are guaranteed the quality and service you provide. When customers hear your slogan, they know the food they get is from your restaurant; and
- exclusivity allows you to protect your reputation as a quality business by preventing competitors from taking advantage of your good name.
Trade Mark Registration
To successfully apply for a trade mark, you must show that your mark is distinguishable from the marks of other businesses. To make your mark distinct enough for identification, you must ensure it stands out from others. A unique trademark will have a higher chance of acceptance and registration.
If your application is successful, you will own the trade mark for your brand and enjoy all of the benefits of owning that trade mark.
Trade Mark Protection
To ensure your trade mark remains protected for 10 years after registration, you must actively use it in your branding and maintain its uniqueness and distinctiveness from other brands. Additionally, you should enforce your rights against third parties using similar or identical marks. When considering changes to your branding, avoid making it too generic. If you introduce new trade marks, apply for separate trade mark registrations to safeguard them.
Trade Secrets
A trade secret is information you keep confidential to protect it from being used by others. You do not need to register a trade secret or inform anyone that you want to protect the confidential information, you just need to keep it secret. You can keep trade secrets such as:
- recipes: KFC’s “11 herbs and spices” recipe is a trade secret; and
- working processes: the New York Times has kept the process of deciding what a ‘bestseller’ is entirely secret.
Benefits of Trade Secrets
Benefits of trade secrets include:
- you can keep anything a trade secret;
- the only thing you need to do to make information into a trade secret is keep it secret. You do not need to pay fees or wait for application processes;
- unlike patents or trade marks that can expire, trade secret protection remains in place as long as the secret remains confidential; and
- the law safeguards trade secrets from exposure due to improper activities by others, including your employees.
Trade Secrets Protection
All you need to do is keep your trade secrets secret. There are a few ways you can make sure this happens:
- limit the number of people who know the secret information: the fewer people who know, the less you worry about someone giving away your trade secret;
- require employees to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDA): these agreements make it illegal for employees to share your secret information with anyone; and
- keep hard copies of the information safe: Colonel Sanders famously kept the “11 herbs and spices” recipe in his head for years. KFC now holds only the hard copy of the recipe in a safe place.
Copyright
Copyright gives you ownership of your creative property. It also protects creative property from being copied or replicated by others. You can copyright things like:
- menus: a unique menu can help your food stand out to browsing customers;
- advertisements: ensuring competitors cannot copy your advertisements means you can feel safe spending money on quality marketing; and
- software: owning your unique programs for assigning rooms or lodging cleaning requests can give your service a competitive edge over other hotels.
Benefits of Copyright
Benefits of copyright include:
- you have the exclusive right to use your copyrighted materials for economic gain. Other companies cannot take your worksheets or videos and profit from them;
- you have the exclusive right to change and adapt your copyrighted work, preventing others from using altered versions of your educational materials; and
- you do not need to register for a copyright. Copyright automatically exists from the creation of the creative work.
Copyright Protection Requirements
To have copyright protection, a creative work must be original. This does not mean it must come from an original idea; it just means that it must be creative and not be a copy.
Copyright Ownership
The author of a creative work is the owner of its copyright. If you have created the menu or catalogue you want to protect, you are its author and own the copyright. If you have contracted another to create your program or advertisement, you may have to negotiate a contract with the creator that gives you copyright rights.
Your business’ brand represents your values, identity and reputation. Learn how to create a successful brand and protect it.
Key Takeaways
It is extremely important to protect your intellectual property. There are three key ways to ensure the protection of your restaurant or hotel’s branding. They include:
- obtaining a registered trade mark safeguards your branding from replication and unwanted use;
- keeping trade secrets confidential is a great way to protect the techniques and recipes that give you a competitive edge; and
- a copyright means that your creative work does not go unprotected.
If you need help with protecting your intellectual property, our experienced intellectual property lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 1300 544 755 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can prevent competitors from using your branding by registering a trade mark, which gives you exclusive rights to your logos and slogans, ensuring your brand remains unique and protected.
Trade secrets provide long-term protection without the need for registration. By keeping information like recipes or processes confidential, you maintain exclusive control and safeguard your competitive edge.
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