💡 Word Mark or Device Mark / Figurative Trade Mark? #rolfclaessen
Channel: Rolf Claessen
Date: 2018-10-28

Word Mark or Device Mark / Figurative Trade Mark? https://rolfclaessen.com 🔴 Subscribe ► https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=rolfclaessen Vielen Dank! ☺️ #rolfclaessen

🔴 Description: In this video I explain exactly whether it is better to apply for a word mark or a word/picture mark - i.e. a graphically designed word mark.

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Clients applying for a trademark for the first time often ask themselves whether it is better to apply for a word mark or a figurative mark. You hired a designer for a lot of money and got a beautiful logo with the new name MARIMBA for your dance studio or your garlic presses. 
My clear recommendation: word mark! Why? The word mark protects the word MARIMBA abstractly and detached from the graphic design, i.e. a competitor who designs MARIMBA differently than in your own logo always falls under your word mark, because he uses just this word. If you registered the beautiful logo, then a competitor would no longer fall under your trademark if he chose the graphic design of the word MARIMBA differently than you. 
However, there is also a second reason for applying for a word mark: a trademark can be cancelled by competitors if it is not used as registered within 5 years of registration (cancellation due to revocation). So if you register the logo as a word/picture mark and in 3 years your marketing or communications department comes up with the idea of refreshing the corporate design and designing a new logo, then you would also have to register this logo again. The old trademark would then be ready for cancellation 5 years later. If you register the word mark, the logo can be redesigned as often as you enjoy and benefit from it. As long as the word is preserved, the word mark is deemed to have been used. This is the only way to generate really old and strong brands. 
There is one exception: trademarks are only registered if they do not describe exactly the goods and services that are to be protected. If you now want to register a trademark "Websites cheaper" than product or company names as a trademark for web design in Class 42, then this trademark will presumably only be registrable as a word/picture trademark with a graphic design. However, my recommendation would be that you choose a more imaginative name, as you would not be perceived under such a name in such a way that you could easily distinguish yourself from your competitors. 
As a rule of thumb, you should therefore use a name that is as imaginative and undescriptive as possible when filing the trademark application in order to obtain good registration of the trademark and the broadest possible scope of protection.
What is the best way to register a word mark in order to achieve an optimum protection area? I always apply for word marks entirely in capital letters, unless the mark lives from an unorthodox spelling, such as MARimBa. Why capital letters? Because according to the established case law in most industrialized countries the usual so-called normal spellings are covered by the trademark. This also applies in Germany to the other normal spellings, so that marimba would also cover a MARIMBA form of infringement. In the USA, for example, only MARIMBA also includes identical marimba and not vice versa.
If I now absolutely want to apply for a word/picture mark? It is then advisable to apply for this word/figurative mark in black and white, provided that this is possible and does not fundamentally change the character of the mark. Why? Because, according to the case law, this trademark then also includes forms of use in all customary colour designs. So if you use the trademark in blue and a competitor uses the same logo in red, it still falls under your trademark in black and white.

🔴 Contact:
Dr. Rolf Claessen
Michalski · Hüttermann & Partner Patentanwälte mbB
Speditionstraße 21
50677 Cologne
Germany
📞 +49-211-159249-0
📠 +49-211-159249-20
✉️ claessen@mhpatent.de
https://rolfclaessen.com

🔴 Legalese and Disclaimer - Rechtliches
Sie haben sich ein Video von Patentanwalt Rolf Claessen angesehen. Die Meinungen der Teilnehmer in diesem Video sind ihre eigenen Meinungen und spiegeln nicht die Meinung der jeweiligen Kanzleien wieder und werden auch nicht von den Kanzleien mitgetragen. Keiner der Inhalte soll als Rechtsberatung angesehen werden. Diese Videos sollten unter keinen Umständen als Rechtsberatung oder als Rechtsauffassung ausgelegt werden. Die Inhalte dieser Videos sind als allgemeine Informationen gedacht. Für konkrete Rechtsfragen sollten Sie Ihren Patentanwalt kontaktieren. Konsultieren Sie Ihren Patentanwalt.