In case you intend to register a brand or trademark, but do not fully understand the concept, I advise to read this book with an open mind. In this book, the concept of trademark, the difference between brand and service, copyright and copyright are described in simple language. In addition to discussing the importance and reasons for having a trademark in business, the things you should know before starting registering a trademark are described briefly and practically. At the end, the process of registering a trademark is described in detail.

2.
Trademark
Stuff Every Business Should Know

3. Trademark (Stuff Every Business Should Know )
Title
Master Steve
Author
Somayeh Amiri, Tara Kamangar
Colleagues
Keyvan
Layout
Designer
Silk Road Publishing (Toronto, Canada)
Publisher
Printed Book: 978-1-990236-07-5
EBook: 978-1-990236-08-2
ISBN
www.MasterSteve.com
Website
Attributions:
Images Credits: Pch.Vector / Freepik
Note: The author of this book gives the right to use
the present content, provided that the source is cited,
to professors, educators, teachers, lecturers, and aca-
demic and non-academic educational centers, for an
indefinite period.
The copyright of this bookis internationallyregistered
for the author.

4. Content
Chapter 1: What is Trademark?................................................5
The Concept of Trademark................................................................6
Abbreviations...............................................................................................7
The Difference Between Trade Name and Trademark ....10
Chapter 2: Benefits and Applications of Trademark
Registration ........................................................................................... 11
1. Recognition .......................................................................................... 12
2. Monetary Value of a Business .................................................... 12
3. Competition .........................................................................................14
4. Protection ..............................................................................................14
5. Branding .................................................................................................15
6. Growing Stronger in the Market .............................................. 16
7. Revenue Earning from Licensing ............................................ 18
8. Preventing the Manufacture of Counterfeit Product .... 19
Chapter 3: Before Registration............................................. 20
The Importance of Immediate Trademark Registration .21
The Dead or Canceled Trademark ..............................................22
Registration with Two or More Partners ...................................24
Using Someone Else’s Trademark ...............................................24
The Importance of Internet Domain Registration..............26
Which Items Can Be Registered as Trademarks?..................27
Which Items Can’t Be Registered as Trademark?.................28
TradeMark
3

5. Chapter 4: Trademark Registration.
................................. 30
1. Methods of Trademark Registration........................................ 31
2. Procedure of Trademark Registration...................................32
A. Clear Identification of the Applicant of Trademark
Registration ........................................................................................33
B. Selecting the Type of Trademark to Register .............34
C. Selecting the Product Category of a Trademark ......35
D. Filing and Providing Documents .....................................36
E. Initial Approval and Official Gazette ..............................37
F. Trademark Registration and Renewal Fee.....................38
Chapter 5: Copyright ....................................................................39
Useful Links .........................................................................................44

4

6. Chapter 1
What is
Trademark?

7. In this script, we will answer the following questions:
What is a trademark? How is it used in business and
what benefits does it have? Is it necessary to register a
trademark? Who would need to do that?
At the end, for those interested and active in arts
and software, we discuss copyright and how it is dif-
ferent from trademark.
The Concept of Trademark
Your trademark is the name of the company or
product, logo and advertising slogan which you reg-
ister and then you will own it. You use trademark
for publicizing your brand or as it is said nowadays
for branding; this mark makes you distinguished.
Now the main problem is how to be distinguished
from others. So we can say trademark is a type of in-
tellectual property consisting of a recognizable logo,
design, sign, or expression, slogan which creatively
What
is
Trademark?
6

8. differentiate service or product of a particular brand
the products or services of another brand. However,
you must understand that trademark goes beyond
that.
Trademark is the most robust business tool to use in
a business. You can internationally receive recognition
using a trademark; It is sort of your business securi-
ty. Trademark in a business is like buying a real estate
property for a business. With trademark, the more
valuable your business gets, the more valuable your
property gets. The registered trademark can also turn
your company value into billions of dollars. The most
exciting thing about a trademark is that it is exclusive
and it only belongs to you.
Abbreviations
TM is an abbreviated form of trademark. Service
Mark is also abbreviated as SM. Trademark differs
from service Mark. As mentioned before, trademark
is used for the name of a company, name of a product,
logo and advertising slogan, but a Service Mark is used
for service; i.e. you trademark/service-mark a service.
In fact, it is the same as trademark and the only differ-
ence is that Service Mark is only used for services and
anything concerning them.
What is R in a circle (®)? We use SM and TM when
a trademark is not registered yet. However, when it is
registered, you are expected use a ® above the trade-
mark. For example, Microsoft has a ® above its logo
TradeMark
7

9. which shows the logo is registered. So, whenever you
see ®, you should know that it means the logo or
slogan in question has been officially registered as a
trademark.
However, wherever you see a SM or TM, that is
whenever you see a brand name without ®, it sim-
ply means the brand or its trademark is not officially
registered yet. It is possible that such brand is in the
middle of the process of registration. Therefore, the
company can claim that actual mark belongs to them
and they are trying to officially make it their own
mark. What makes that officially true is the SM or
TM that is added at the end of such brand name. For
example, Sokhan Corporation adds a TM at the end
of the word ‘Sokhan’ because the corporation aims
to say: this name belongs to me and nobody else is
using it.
Recap: So far, you have learned the difference be-
tween SM, TM and ®.
You must know that if someone actually owns a
mark and you use that mark, the owner may sue you.
So, first you should make sure nobody owns a mark
and then use it. Here, when we say owners, we are
talking about famous and well-known people and cor-
porations. For example, assume that somebody takes
Microsoft Facility and add a TM above it. This mark
is famous enough that people immediately go after it.
Therefore, you can’t simply add a TM above any name
you want and start the registration process because by
What
is
Trademark?
8

10. doing so, you are exposing yourself to the risk of law-
suit and without conducting proper research on the
name, you’ll be wasting your hard-earned money and
time.
So, you can put TM above your name and say that
it belongs to you. However, if this mark/brand you
are choosing is already registered by a credible cor-
poration, you are in big trouble, especially since you
are possibly unaware of its rules. It is of essential to
have lawyer involved in this process. This is because
it is not one of those things you can easily do by your-
self.
Each corporation should first register its trade-
mark in its own country but you should also regis-
ter in the US to get to an expanded market. Even for
those who have registered a trademark in Canada, it
is eventually better to register in the US as well. The
United States of America is the best place to register
a trademark because you can solve most of the issues
online. Also, if you first register your trademark in the
US, it is somehow much easier and quicker to do it in
other countries.
The next abbreviated word is C or Copyright which
will be fully discussed later in this book.
TradeMark
9

11. The Difference Between Trade Name
and Trademark
As we discussed earlier, trademark is different
from Trade Name. Therefore, these two concepts
aren’t the same thing. You should know when you
want to register a name as a corporation name, you
do it in the corporate registration office. Then, you
can have many trademarks under the same corpora-
tion name. For example, your corporation name is
“Veshareh” but what people see is ABC as the famous
name in the pertinent job. If the name of your job is
ABC, this is your business name; you have registered
the corporation name, then you have registered
the Trade Name, but none of them is a trademark.
Trademark must be registered independently and it
has nothing to do with registering your corporation
name.
Another issue to consider is that when you reg-
ister a Trade Name, if someone has registered a
trademark with the same name before you, they can
cancel your corporation name or Trade Name. This
is how influential a trademark is and you can easi-
ly file a lawsuit against anyone who would exploit
your trademark.
What
is
Trademark?
10

12. Chapter 2
Benefits and
Applications
of Trademark
Registration

13. 1
1 Recognition
An important reason to have a trademark is that it
gives recognition and credit to you and your corpo-
ration. For example, when your corporation requires
a loan, the bank would take you more seriously when
they see your trademark and they believe you care
about your business and its future. You also show the
bank that your business is being well supported and
you have protected it by registering it.
2
2 Monetary Value of a Business
There may be a time when you need to sell off your
business. One of the best things to do in economics is
to create a business and sell it later. When your busi-
Benefits and Applications of Trademark Registration
12

14. ness is in a good shape and position, it would definite-
ly be bought with a good price. Don’t say: I spent my
entire life on it and this business is my love, passion,
etc. business has nothing to do with love. When your
business is in a good shape and position and you can
sell it and earn a huge amount of money, the best
thing to do is to sell. You should of course do it while
you consider certain conditions.
In such situations, the first things buyers would
consider are as follow:
z
Is your business registered?
z
How robust is its legal registration?
z
What items does your trademark cover?
z
Do you have trademark over all the names and
logos?
All of the above considerations raise your business
price and value.
In order to develop in the market, you need to ne-
gotiate with people. Such negotiations require you
to be taken seriously. A robust tool is ®. TM is half
the way. By registering ®, you help your business to
grow.
TradeMark
13

15. 3
3 Competition
Competition is always a companion of a business,
and trademark is one of your assets in this competition.
For example, you see how banks have different adver-
tising slogans and if they hadn’t registered them, any-
one could have taken these slogans as their own. Not
only a tool for advertising and marketing a business,
but these advertising slogans are also part of branding
strategy, and essentially in the competitive market, the
stronger your brand, the more chance of success you
get, and you can compete more effectively if you reg-
ister this brand.
4
4 Protection
As I mentioned earlier, if you register a brand to-
day, and you realize tomorrow that someone else has
already registered it in another city or province, there
is no way to protect the name of your corporation or
product except to turn it into a trademark. In that case,
it is globalized and you are confident that no one can
ever use it for their brand.
Benefits and Applications of Trademark Registration
14

16. I have many Trade Names for various businesses.
Someone used one of my trademarks in Facebook. I
asked him nicely not to do it and to remove the name
but he ignored my request. I notified Facebook about
his page, which was a popular one, was taken down by
Facebook in less than 24 hours. Trademark is no joke.
If I had sued that person, as my compensation, I could
have received whatever he had earned using my trade-
mark.
5
5 Branding
In business, you should promote your brand, or as
they say, you should do branding. Why do you find
Adidas, Nike and Coca-Cola interesting? It is because
you are accustomed to them, and the older they get,
the more valuable they become. These are trademarks
and recognized brands, and no one can ever replace
them in any possible way. You should have trade-
mark in any country in which you do business, but,
I repeat, if you want to enter a larger circle, the US is
the first choice because it has a wide market and the
source of the internet is located there. So you will be
able to use the internet to bring your business to life
and reach more customers. You will also be able to un-
derstand if someone is already using your brand name
or trademark when you are in the US.
TradeMark
15

17. 6
6 Growing Stronger in the Market
The stronger a market and the older you trademark
get, the more robust your business becomes. So, it is
not just registration that matters. You should also use
it in the market. For example, that name or logo must
be written/put in your website and over your products.
Your mark must be in the advertisements because the
older you become in the market, the more power you
have in your work.
One of my trademarks had two similar words to
Oscar Academy, and since the name of Oscar Acade-
my is Academy Awards, they sued me. I would spend
time and energy without giving up too soon to put
aside my trademark if it was anyone but them. How-
ever, I knew I would get nowhere fighting these peo-
ple because the Academy Awards has been a trade-
mark for decades. I could keep my trademark and
start the legal process if I wanted to. As justifiable as
it was, I could do it only by paying a huge cost. Ac-
cording to the United States Patent and Trademark
Office, my trademark was OK and there was no legal
problem about it; but even when your trademark is
legally right, as an old and aged brand, your adverse
party puts pressure saying they have been in the mar-
ket for years and you are a newcomer trying to ex-
ploit them. Of course, they have to be able to prove
Benefits and Applications of Trademark Registration
16

18. that you are taking advantage of their trademark. If
they can do that, you’ll lose the trademark and you
also have to pay fines. That’s why I put up with them.
I mentioned some conditions for them to be met, so
I would accept their conditions. They agreed with me
on those conditions. They had no intention for a legal
case and they were simply trying to protect their own
trademark, its value and history.
That’s how interesting aging is. If you have a corpo-
ration, as your first move, you should turn the corpo-
ration name, the name of the products, your adver-
tising slogan and everything else which is important
and vital for you into a trademark. This is necessary
because the older your trademark becomes, the more
you use it, the more valuable it gets. Furthermore,
as your year brand increases in age and year of exis-
tence, the value of your corporation also will increase.
If someone wants to use a trademark just like yours
someday, you will have enough power to start a legal
case against them.
TradeMark
17

19. 7
7 Revenue Earning from Licensing
Licensing by using trademark is one of the ways
to earn side revenues by trademark registration. For
example, you want to produce a series of T-shirts and
print the name Nike on them. The T-shirts are sport
products, and Nike is an important brand and you
can do it. How should you do this process to avoid
trouble and being sued? The company Nike asks how
many of these T-shirts you intend to produce. You,
for example, say 1000 T-shirts. Nike says you should
pay them 35 dollars for each T-shirt and this is the li-
cense for you to produce 1000 T-shirts with the name
Nike on them. In this contract, you can’t even pro-
duce 1001 T-shirts!
Therefore, such licensing is one of the best ways
to earn side revenue by a trademark. It means you
can sell the license of the name you registered and
publicized in the market. The same thing happens
with copyright and I will explain the whole thing lat-
er.
Licensing is a huge business as well. You have reg-
istered an appealing trademark, and a shop uses your
name or the character you have made for its own ad-
vertisement and pays you for it.
Benefits and Applications of Trademark Registration
18

20. 8
8 Preventing the Manufacture of
Counterfeit Product
The manufacture of a counterfeit form of your
products is one of the biggest problems you could
solve using trademark. Back in the day, you would
hear that fake products of a well-known brand were
made and sold for example, in China, India, Thailand
and some other countries. Nowadays, it is not easy to
do so. The countries in which fake brands were pro-
duced are under control and supervision so they can’t
do forgery anymore. However, when your trademark
is registered, a fake product with your trademark
can’t pass through customs and ruin the market in a
country like the US.
You can even stop online sales of such products.
Anyway, everybody tries to make their sales and earn
money through internet and this is currently one of
the most important topics in the world.
TradeMark
19

21. Chapter 3
Before
Registration

22. The Importance of Immediate Trade-
mark Registration
When you want to register a trademark, it is late to
wait even for a second. You should do the registration
quickly, even if your business is a new-established start-
up. For any kind of reason, someone may register your
intended name before you do. The law says anyone who
brings the name sooner for registration will be accepted.
If I tell you I’ve been using this trademark for the past
five years, I may get results but it will take a very compli-
cated and long process if you want to be more successful
than the one who has filed a registration before you.
You have heard of the name Haida Sandwich in
Iran. Someone has registered Haida in Toronto and it
has nothing to do with that Haida in Iran. The own-
ers of Haida trademark in Iran can’t simply take their
trademark back from those in Canada. Haida is even
registered in the US, which also has nothing to do with
the original brand in Iran.
TradeMark
21

23. You should notify everyone immediately after you
register a trademark. Notify everywhere in catalogs,
websites and anywhere you can publicize your prod-
uct using any method possible so it would be seen
more and everybody would know that the trademark
belongs to you.
It is possible that someone requests the same trade-
mark while your request is being processed. In that case,
the one who has requested soonerwill be processed first.
The Dead or Canceled Trademark
When they say an entity or a corporation is dead with-
out renewing a trademark it means that no report has
been filed to the registration office in the past 5 to 6 years
and this trademark has gone to the canceling system.
Now you may ask if you can register a dead trade-
mark.
The first thing to consider is how long has it been
since the trademark registration was canceled? This
is free information and anyone can check it out by
searching on the trademark website.
The second thing to consider is that why was the
trademark registration canceled? Is it because they ha-
ven’t filled the reporting forms about the active status
of the trademark or was there a lawsuit? If there is a
lawsuit, you may also get sued as someone who wants
to be the new owner of the trademark in question, and
you may lose, too.
Before
Registration
22

24. Remember my personal example about Oscar
Academy’s legal complaint. So, if someone wants to
register the name I did and failed due to the Oscar
Academy’s complaint, that person would definitely
face the same complaint and stiff opposition from the
Oscar Academy and lose.
The other thing to consider is whether the name is
still being used in the market. If it is actually work-
ing, then a request for registering it is risky and you
shouldn’t think about it at all.
In the last step, you should check how much a dead
trademark is worth anyway. You are getting a name
which used to belong to someone else who couldn’t
follow the process, say, because of illness and hospital-
ization, and their requested trademark is canceled or
so-called dead. If that person comes back and requests
the renewed trademark registration, they have a pri-
ority over you since they have asked for the trademark
before you do and have longer history. So, you should
see whether getting such a trademark is worth it or not.
It is interesting to know that trademark is trans-
ferrable. You fill some forms and sell it and it will be
transferred to a new person.
You mayaskif someonewho is so-called non-Amer-
ican or non-Canadian could register a trademark or
not. Yes, they can. The important thing is to choose
an appropriate lawyer to follow up on the registra-
tion process or provide the required information and
tools.
TradeMark
23

25. Registration with Two or More Partners
Is it possible for two or more persons to register a
trademark together? It is possible [if they act] as part-
ners. However, using the trademarks in different cat-
egories and in two different businesses is challenging
and the owner may even lose the trademark altogeth-
er.
Using Someone Else’s Trademark
Are you able to use a corporation’s trademark if
you are working with them in form of a franchise or a
license when they have an officially registered trade-
mark?
This situation lies within the legal conditions of a
franchise (purchasing the license of a business).
When you sign a franchise or license agreement,
it means you are buying a branch. Practically, you’re
doing nothing because the original corporation has
gone through the registration process. They are in
fact providing you with the right to use their name,
logo, decoration and packing through a franchise
agreement. Therefore, you use their trademark and
make money. However, you must realize that you
won’t be able to use a company’s trademark and
logo without a franchise or license agreement in
place.
Before
Registration
24

26. Note:
Note:
Due to modern technology, it is usually impossible
to find a way around the regulations regarding the
aforementioned items. You should realize that it is
not advisable to dodge the registration system or
avoid any of the processes because all your plans
and efforts will be ruined and wasted if they even-
tually take back the trademark from you. There-
fore, only go after the right and applicable things
from the beginning.
It is better to hire a lawyer to do all of these steps. If
you decide to do it by yourself, all your efforts may be
lost in vain due to lack of knowledge about one single
article of the law. The general process of trademark
registration is almost the same all around the world.
However, each country has its principles and meth-
ods. What is discussed here mostly covers the rules of
Canada and the US.
TradeMark
25

27. The Importance of Internet Domain
Registration
Domain is an important matter regarding the inter-
net. You can trademark a domain name as well. Basi-
cally, before selecting a name, it would be really good
if you check whether there is a domain for that name.
This is of great importance.
A registered trademark allows you to file a lawsuit if
someone has taken the internet domain of that mark.
You can take the domain from them and register it as
your trademark, too.
There is a section in the international registration of
internet domain which deals with such affairs. There-
fore, google the name first to see it actually doesn’t
exist. After you make sure the name you want to take
will belong to you and no one has ever registered it as
a trademark, you should take the internet domain as
well.
Purchasing a domain takes less than 30 seconds but
if you don’t act fast enough, you have to spend a long
time to make it your trademark. I even suggest you
to take the domain first and then start the process of
trademark registration.
Don’t lose the domain name because it is essential
to your business and trademark. Nowadays, domain
name is the main topic in branding and it is consid-
ered as a valuable asset.
Before
Registration
26

28. Which Items Can Be Registered as
Trademarks?
You can trademark the corporation name, the cor-
poration logo, the product name and your advertis-
ing slogan. If you trademark each of these four items,
no other corporation or person will be able to exploit
it. If you have a special packing design, you can use
the trademark itself. However, the corporation name
and the product name are usually the most applicable
types of a Trade Name.
While registering a corporation, you may realize
another corporation in another city has your corpora-
tion name on it. This can’t happen about a trademark.
For example, if you have registered your corporation
name in Ontario, Canada but not your Trade Name,
you will realize later that someone else has registered
it in British Colombia. That simple! However, if you
do the trademark registration for your own name, it is
not easy for people to use it because it is unique and
especially registered for you.
The important thing to note is that you should
use your trademark in the market. It is not like just a
name you just register and leave. Trademark is like a
fine wine; it just gets more valuable with age. When a
trademark gets old, it means more people recognize it.
The value of an old trademark is high enough to help
you with branding. Beware that Trade Name and trade-
mark aren’t the same and they are different concepts.
TradeMark
27

29. Which Items Can’t Be Registered as
Trademark?
The list of such forbidden items is long and lawyers
know them better than just anybody. However, there
are some notes to consider. For example, you can’t
trademark a proper noun. For example, John Broth-
ers Company can’t trademark the name John Broth-
ers because it is a proper noun, meaning anyone else
could bear such name.
z
The other item is quite common nouns with
general meaning. For example, I have a com-
pany named Doctor Advertise, which is an ad-
vertising company. When we were registering
this trademark and getting it done, we face
some complicated issues. The word “Advertise”
is a common noun. Registration of this word
and other 100% common nouns isn’t allowed.
For example, someone had tried to register the
word “tea” which is not possible. Even more
complicated than that is that you are not al-
lowed to register a name which 100% indicates
what you are going to do.
z
Language is another aspect to consider. If you
want to register a trademark in the US and you
decide to give it in Farsi letters, it’s not going to
be an easy process.
Before
Registration
28

30. z
“Micro” and “Soft” both have separate meanings
but it is interesting to know that the word “Mic-
rosoft” is recorded as a single word and even this
one has its own meaning.
z
Another excluded item to register is the name
of geographical locations. Famous or even un-
familiar geographical locations can’t be used in
a trademark. You can’t use the name of a coun-
try or a city that belongs to a known geograph-
ical place.
z
You can’t use a flag design in your logo under
any circumstances.
z
The elements of the united nations and other
pertinent organizations can’t be entered in the
symbols you want to register.
TradeMark
29

31. Chapter 4
Trademark
Registration

32. 1
1 Methods of Trademark Registration
There are two methods for trademark registration:
The first method is when you have already used the
trademark in the market before you apply for regis-
tration. During the registration process, you will be
asked if you have ever used the mark or the name in
the market. If the answer is yes, you should provide
the documents and evidence regarding how much and
how long you have been using the mark in question.
They usually don’t reject your request for registering
what you have already created and promoted. For ex-
ample, Academy Awards contains two common nouns
“Academy” and “awards” which can be used by anyone.
Both of them are 100% common nouns but this name
and trademark had been created decades ago. There-
fore, this trademark is acknowledged because of the
value and the power it has achieved in the world.
TradeMark
31

33. It matters who has promoted and used a trademark
more extensively. Sometimes, you see a proper noun is
used in a certain product. You should know this name
does not get registered because it’s a proper noun; but
it’s possible to register a proper noun in case it is ac-
companied by a business with the same name which
has been active in the market for decades.
The second method is when you go through the
registration process for a trademark you have never
used before in the market.
2
2 Procedure of Trademark Registration
The procedure discussed here is the federal regis-
tration procedure. In fact, trademark registration is
federal both in the US and Canada. Provincial regis-
tration makes no sense.
Basically, the whole trademark registration takes 9
months to one and a half years to finish.
Trademark
Registration
32

34. A.
A.Clear Identification of the Applicant
of Trademark Registration
The type of applicant is of great importance in
trademark registration; i.e. is the applicant a person or
a corporation?
The trademark registration organization deals with
whoever applies for trademark registration. The ap-
plicant is the one responsible for the brand being reg-
istered. The applicant will also be the owner of the
trademark when it is duly registered; will be involved
in the correspondence and eventually, the trademark
will be issued under the applicant’s name whether a
person or a corporation or even an association.
The next important thing after the name of the
person or the corporation is details of addresses and
phone numbers because the same address and phone
numbers will be used to contact you and you don’t
know when they would notify you.
If you confront a legal issue during the registration,
they will usually give you six months to defend your
case and if you don’t refer to the organization, the case
will be closed. If there is a problem with your address
or if you provide the wrong phone numbers, they may
not be able to locate and contact you. You may get into
trouble as easily as that. Therefore, the contact infor-
mation you officially provide for the registration orga-
nization must be valid because it is shown publicly and
it is a contact reference to follow up your registration.
TradeMark
33

35. B.
B.Selecting the Type of Trademark to
Register
The next step in trademark registration is to identi-
fy the type of what you want to register. Which of the
following do you wish to register?
z
Corporation name
z
Product name
z
Logo
z
Advertising slogan
z
What you want to register is TM or SM?
How are the words and terms of what you want
to register framed and arranged? The composition
and typesetting of the words in your trademark
must be the exactly the way you would like it to be
registered. If it’s a logo, you must prepare the de-
sign as a jpg file. You won’t be able to register your
business name, if it looks exactly the way an existed
trademark or business name looks. Also, you won’t
be able to register your design if design you supply
looks too much like an active business trademark in
the market. The registering organization includes a
control section and they examine all the registered
items.
Trademark
Registration
34

36. C.
C.Selecting the Product Category of a
Trademark
The next stage is to select the relevant niche/cat-
egory where your services or products can be cate-
gorized. It means it should be clear the logo and the
name you want to register belongs to which product
category. A name can be registered in a niche/catego-
ry under computer services and this niche/category
entails tens of subgroups. Someone else may try to
register and use the same name in the food niche/
category.
Try to find the closest group to your business. It’s
OK if you want to have trademark in several catego-
ries/niches for any kind of reason. To put your trade-
mark in each category, you will have to pay a separate
fee.
Someone or some corporation might have already
registered your Trade Name in any of these categories.
In that case, the one with longer history and more rec-
ognition will win; i.e. the more famous you are, the less
is the possibility of others registering your trademark
in another category because you can file a lawsuit. If
you sue and claim that your trademark has been ex-
ploited, the other party will be in great loss in case you
can prove your claim.
TradeMark
35

37. D.
D.Filing and Providing Documents
While registering a trademark and after selecting the
category of your products, you will be asked an import-
ant question regarding whether your trademark has
been already used in the market. If the answer is yes, us-
ing documents and evidence, you should demonstrate
how much and in what ways this mark has been used
before. Then filing will start and you provide the docu-
ments regarding whether you have already used the ap-
plied trademark or this is going to be your first time.
After that, you send the documents and wait for the
response from the trademark organization. If there is no
problem, it’s time for official notice. Same with the Of-
ficial Gazette, it will be announced so everyone can ex-
press their opinions and if any party has any opposition
or complaint, there will be a period of consideration so
they could act upon their complaint . Of course, you can
respond to these complaints before your trademark or
Trade Name is officially registered. It may take months
or even a year before the first response is delivered.
At this stage, if your name and mark are not similar
to another brand’s, they will announce to you that your
registration is done. It means you were fortunate and
the first approval is provided; so far, so good. This is
the best-case scenario. However, such luck rarely hap-
pens. Usually, after the announcement, some issues
are declared so that you can resolve them if possible.
Sometimes, there’s no way to resolve these issues and
Trademark
Registration
36

38. you can’t do anything about it. Either way, you get six
months to respond.
Some of the issues are related to the incorrect infor-
mation which you were given from the beginning or the
mistakes made in the process of registration, meaning
the documents haven’t been properly provided. Some-
times, the issue lies within the laws of trademark reg-
istration which are complicated in nature. In that case,
you have legal issues. Although you will be guided, you
should be able to comprehend the guidance. A lawyer
will understand them but if you act independently, it
will be much more difficult and there will be a risk of
getting no results. However, you can take the risks and
do the whole thing without a lawyer. In that case, you
will be told how you can resolve the issues. Then it’s
solved, it takes months to get the approval.
E.
E.Initial Approval and Official Gazette
After the initial approval of the mark, it must be
published in the Official Gazette to notify everyone so
any party who has a problem with the mark would be
able to state their grievances and objections. If no one
objects and no problem is reported, the registration
number and a certificate will be provided and a trade-
mark ® will be issued. However, this process could be
quashed in the same stage if any objections by a person
or a corporation happen until you somehow settle it.
You can use TM if you can’t get a ®.
TradeMark
37

39. F.
F.Trademark Registration and Renewal
Fee
The fee for registering a trademark depends on
the lawyer you have hired for the job and it is usual-
ly something between 2 to 10 thousand dollars. This
fee includes all the governmental fees of a trademark.
The governmental fee for a trademark registration is
325 dollars in the US and 250 dollars in Canada. Some
overhead expenses are added to this figure as well. For
example, a separate 200-dollar registration fee must
be paid in Canada while there is no such expense in
the US. In addition, the renewal fee is 350 dollars in
Canada and 100 dollars in the US. The fee for resolv-
ing conflicts is 750 in Canada while there is a different
fee for it in the US.
Each registered trademark is valid for a specific du-
ration and it must be renewed after that. The registra-
tion fee is paid only one time and there is no need to
pay separate fee annually. Trademark lasts 10 years in
the US and 15 years in Canada and you should extend
them after the 10- or 15-year duration. During 5 to 6
years after registration, you are given a form which
should be filled to show the trademark is still working
and present in the market. They revoke your registra-
tion otherwise.
Trademark
Registration
38

40. Chapter5
Copyright

41. The first question in this aspect has always been
about the difference between a trademark and copy-
right. As the name suggests, trademark is related to
commercial matters and it covers the commercial
products and the world of business. Copyright allows
you to protect the text, image, book, story or software
product or the music piece that you have produced in
anyway you want it to be protected.
Clearly, both of these concepts empoweryou to pro-
tect what you own so no one else could use it without
your express or official permission; you are the only
one who can use that product as its owner, but what is
protected is the ultimate difference here.
You own the product that you have registered its
copyright and for 70 years after your death, nothing
can nullify it. In fact, an author’s work will still be pro-
tected under copyright law for 70 years after the 31th
day of December of the year he/she passes away. Af-
ter that time, it becomes public. If you want to check
Copyright
40

42. whether a work is out of copyright for public use, you
should consider the author’s time of death and the
copyright belongs to the family of that person up to
70 years after that date. After the lapse of the 70 years,
then the work becomes a public domain.
Do a search and find sources which introduce pub-
licized works because a work is definitely registered
somewhere and you can search and examine it. Some-
times, we find products with no clear production date
and author/producer. In such cases, a 120-year dura-
tion is considered and then, it will be publicized.
The difference between copyright and trademark
contains other small details as well. For example, copy-
right is sort of an automatic right; i.e. a work is under
your copyright immediately after you finish writing it
even if you haven’t registered it yet. Officially, you can
get involved in legal, financial and other sorts of trans-
actions by registration. Therefore, the copyright of the
product has been created in the first step immediate-
ly when the product was made. However, trademark
is different and you should do the registration so you
could own it.
Through copyright, you own everything and all as-
pects of a product. If someone tries to use what you
own in any possible way, they must ask for your per-
mission and pay a certain fee from them.
In trademark, there is a product categorization. If
someone uses your trademark in a different category,
it is going to be really hard for you to prove they have
TradeMark
41

43. taken advantage of your trademark, but in copyright,
it’s pretty much clear whether what is exploited be-
longs to you or not.
In copyright law, anyone who wants to use what you
produced in any possible way should pay you a fee
to receive a permit. Things are more complicated in
trademark and such permit is not easily issued.
Another critical difference between copyright and
trademark is that copyright becomes publicized af-
ter a long-term period meaning everyone can use it.
However, if maintained legally and properly, trade-
mark never ends and it always belongs to you.
There is a term called fair use. Assume that some-
one or a group of people write an article and discuss a
part of your trademark or copyright. Such application
is only authorized to some extent. Copyright is most
effective in text and if it used more than the permissi-
ble amount, the author can file a lawsuit.
While the copyright of authorship belongs to you
anyway, you should register a work immediately af-
ter it is created before it is presented and distribut-
ed in the market so you can trade upon your product
and conduct business, supply and distribution. Here,
copyright is the best tool.
The library of Congress in the United States is one
of the best places to register international copyright.
Just like the case with any other registration file, it’s
better if you find an expert to do it for you, but you
Copyright
42

44. can do it by yourself, too if you are willing to do so. It
takes a few dollars for the form and the file.
Immediately after you are done with the process
and your work is registered, you get into receiving a
license which is currently one of the most important
businesses in the world and there are numerous fairs
offering; i.e. you allow others to use the product which
right for business belongs to you.
When you prepare a product, it is a highly reve-
nue-earning job to give others a license so they can
use your product in different fields and in return, you
will receive a license fee.
In the present world, a product is used in different
commercial ways. When a book is written, the income
doesn’t simply come from selling the printed book.
Different digital formats, PC games, movies and songs
are released out of it and these items are main sources
of your profit. You can receive copyrights for any of
them in which you are involved.
Copyright is slightly more complicated in case of
music and motion pictures because the original au-
thor is not just one person. So many people including
producers, distributors, creators and recorders are in-
volved in the process of production. While registering
your work for copyright, you should make it clear who
the owner is.
TradeMark
43

45. Useful Links
1. USA Trademark
https://www.uspto.gov/trademark
2. Canada Trademark and Copyright
https://www.canada.ca/en/services/business/ip.ht-
ml
3. UK Trademark
https://www.gov.uk/topic/intellectual-property/
trade-marks
4. Europe Trademark
https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/home
5. World Intellectual Property Organization
https://www.wipo.int/trademarks/en/
6. Germany Trademark
https://www.dpma.de/english/index.html
7. USA Copyright
https://www.copyright.gov/
Copyright
44