A page that aggregates the latest news on trademark registration and intellectual property of Asoka Law, accompanying businesses in protecting intellectual property.
Currently many people confuse “trademark” (also known as “logo” and “brand”) with “business name”. However, these are two completely different concepts.
Trademark and business name are totally different.
A trademark is a sign, which can be images, words, and/ or images and words combined, expressed in one or more colors, used to distinguish goods and services of different organizations and individuals.
Business name is the name that an organization or individual used in business activities to distinguish the business entity bearing that name from other business entities in the same field and business area. The business area specified here is a geographical area where the business entity has partners, customers or reputations.
Hence, it can be seen that a business name is mainly made up of words, whereas a trademark is actually a sign. For example, in the company name “Asoka Law Co., Ltd.”, the element that defines the type of company (Law Co., Ltd.) is not considered a business name - only “Asoka” is the element considered to become a “business name” to distinguish with other business entities operating in the same field and business sector.
The answer is yes. A business names is allowed to register for protection as an intellectual property of the business. Procedures for registering business names are conducted by the National Office of Intellectual Property.
Read more: Trademark search: Has your logo been registered by others?
As shared sincerely by Asoka Law’s lawyer, you need to consider the financial condition of your business before registering protection for your business name. Because:
Currently when you carry out business registration at the Department of Planning and Investment, the Department has a procedure to prevent situations of similar/identical names or confusions before you register. This means that the name of your business (including the element that defines your company type and business name) has been protected quite firmly by the Department of Planning and Investment, ensuring that any companies submitting applications for registration after you are not allowed to register the same name as your business name.
Therefore, you can rest assured that your business name is “exclusive” in your business area.
Consider financial conditions before registering protection for your business name.
Because of the above reason, if you are a start-up enterprise wanting to optimize costs, you should save your budget for trademark registration, bypassing the registration of business name protection, avoiding spending a lot of money.
But if you are a business that has been in operation for a while and has a certain “reputation” (brand) in the market, then we recommend that you register both exclusive trademark protection and business name protection - to proactively “wear more layers of armor” to protect your business, avoid being stolen/ imitated/ counterfeited by your opponents, damaging the name and reputation of your business in the market .
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consult@asokalaw.vn
Asoka Law Companny Limited (Asoka Law)
Head Quarter Address:SAV4, The Sun Avenue, 28 Mai Chi Tho, An Phu Ward, Thu Duc City, HCMC
Branch Office: 23.OT09, Landmark 81, 208 Nguyen Huu Canh Street, Binh Thanh District, HCMC
Operation Registration Certificate no. 41.02.2946/TP/ĐKHĐ issued by HCMC
