Just because you thought it up, doesn’t mean that your business name qualifies for trademark protection under Canadian law. A trademark registration is a government grant of the exclusive right to use a name throughout Canada. It’s a powerful tool that gives a company...
We help a lot of marketers and business owners choose new names. Whether it’s a name for a new product, or a new offer or a whole new business, one of the most important steps in the naming process is ensuring the name is available for how you plan to use it. There...
Listing your brand on the Amazon Brand Registry will help to protect you from counterfeiters, copycats and cheap imitators selling on Amazon. But there’s a pre-requisite to getting on the Brand Registry in Canada. It’s a Canadian trademark registration, or at the very...
Most business owners immediately think of their logo when they hear the word “trademark”. But a logo is actually not your first trademark, nor is it your most important one. It also shouldn’t be the first trademark you register. Your name, whether your business name...
Canadian trademarks are not valid in the United States. It’s as simple as that. There’s no qualifications or exceptions to this rule. Canada and the United States have separate legal systems. If you want the exclusive right to use a name in both countries, you have to...
Most new entrepreneurs and business owners get this all wrong. We file a lot of first-time trademark applications, and for most of them, a corporation is listed as the owner. This means that incorporation is happening before trademarking, and that’s backwards....
I recently read a story about Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic and his legal dispute with his mother about the ownership of his trademarks. Doncic had allowed his mother to register the trademark “Luka Doncic 7”, which got in the way of his new...
You can now download our free guide to avoid rejection and maximize your brand’s protection Amazon has recently surpassed Walmart as the largest US retailer, and e-commerce is predicted to account for 29% of retail sales by 2025. Stay-at-home orders across the...
One of the most common questions we answer in a free consult is “what will it cost to trademark my name?” This blog explains how those costs are calculated. So that you can determine how much it will cost you to trademark your name in Canada. The...
Are you ready to trademark your business name and logo, but you aren’t quite sure how to get started? As a Canadian business owner (or an aspiring business owner), you have options for trademarking. We’ve explained them below, so that you can choose which option...
How do you feel about having to wait 3.5 to 4 years to be able to prove you own your business name? We’re guessing you’re a little shocked and a lot disappointed. This is, unfortunately, how long it takes the typical Canadian small business owner to obtain a...
