Discuss about the Business Ethics for Business Identity.
The report is divided into two parts where the first part identifies the need for brand protection and the process of application for trademark protection and it also discusses the monitoring and protecting trademarks. The main aim is to discuss the use of protection on brand name and protect and use brands and business identity.
Identifying the need for brand protection
Brand is a name that is given to a product or service to create a unique identity of its own. The brand name that Simon has chosen for the smoke alarm that it intends to produce is ‘Best One’ to differentiate its products from other company and show that the product that it will produce is of best quality. The brand name has not been yet registered but the manager of the company wants to register so that the brand that it intends to create is protected in the market. Trade mark is a sign or design given to its brand or product to create the identity and make it differentiate from the other source of product or services (Aaker and Biel 2013).
The things that can be registered under the trade mark act includes word name, letter, signature, device, brand, ticket, label, aspect of packaging, label, color and sound and numeral. In order to obtain a trade mark in Australia it is essential for the company to have an applicant’s name and address, representation of trade mark, specification of goods and services and details of convention priority. Trade mark is the most valuable marketing tool that businesses can use (Scardamaglia and Adams 2016).
Legislative or legal requirement for registering a brand in trade mark includes the trade mark act 1995 and the section 52 of the trade practices act 1974. The trade marks act enables the brands to give a unique name and a facility to be identified as the providers of goods and services different from others. It helps the brand to get registered in a register at the trade Marks office. The section 52 of the trade practices act 1974 say that the corporation that is registered under trademark protection shall not be charged for any misleading or preventive actions and measures (Scardamaglia and Adams 2016).
There are various methods that can be used by the company to stay protected under the trademark protection act. Other methods include action that passes off the common law, protection of consumer provisions trade practices and state fair trade acts that is related to commonwealth, protecting intellectual property, and the organization or the agreements that are confidential that will help the beginners to register the company under the trade mark secret.
Benefits of trademark are that it helps the company build a trademark reputation that encourages advertising, brand loyalty, brand value and persuades the consumers try new products under the established brand. It also helps in consumer protection and gives them a choice to choose between the competing goods and services. Trademark also helps the company stay protected as it can take support from government when it is registered during the time of difficulty (Agarwal et al. 2014).
Commercialization of trademark means recognizing trademark as a business asset that can be bought sold or licensed. Trademark can be used as a marketing tool for building a brand name and product.
There are various sources of information and advice regarding protection of brand and business identity. These include IP Australia, Attorney-General department, Australian copyright council, websites, internet, branding and marketing consultants, and business advisors, databases such as local and international trademark, accountants and copyright collection society (Bently and Sherman 2014).
The primary role and responsibility of the intellectual property professionals are searching databases that include Australia trade mark that includes the list of all the registered and pending trademarks. It also includes collecting data from the Australian securities and investment commission database that lists all registered and reserved business names and any other information of the dataset that is relevant to goods and services provided by the applicant that includes the directors of trade and yellow pages (Bently and Sherman 2014).
The main aim of the attorney of trademark is to advice the clients at the commercial level so that they are able to raise the fund and mitigate the risks that they are likely to face.
There are various methods to ensure that the proposed trademark by an applicant does not disobey another party’s benefits and interests. The main method that can be applied is investigation. Investigation includes using search engines through internet and other social sites and government sites, reviewing books, journal articles related to the product and the company. The primary purpose is to identify the whether competitors have used the proposed trade mark or not (Scardamaglia and Adams 2016).
First the applicant needs to fill the form prescribed by the regulations that intends to register graphically on the trade mark application. The second step is to pay the required fees and the last step is to approving the application o trade mark by the examiner and higher authorities.
To be registered as an international trade mark the process is given as follows:
First step is to register the brand name under the trade mark office overseas for protection. The next step is to filing for protection under the Madrid protocol through IP Australia to seek the protection from just not one country but many countries (Scardamaglia and Adams 2016).
Part three:
Monitoring and protecting trade mark.
There are various policies and procedures that can be used to protect and use the trademark correctly that include monitoring and controlling. The process includes issuing copyright and patent rights and using internet and other websites for monitoring the company.
Strategies to monitor the market for possible trademark infringements are observing the activities of its competitors and watching the market for potential trade mark infringements (Alexander and Fraser 2014).
Measures to protect trademarks from infringements are using the Trade Marks Act 1995 and Section 52 of Trade Practices act 1974. It also uses the common law tort of passing off. Another measure is to bring an opposition against the brand that has doubt and disobeys the rule and removing them from the trade mark act which may infringe.
In order to maintain the organizations trademarks there is list of procedures that need to be followed. Payment of renewal fees means ensuring that the fees are paid periodically to renew the trade mark that has been registered. It also includes timely payment of license fees to ensure the use of another organizations trade mark (Alexander and Fraser 2014).
To ensure that all the employees and employers have proper use of trade mark and are aware includes ensuring that the trade mark is used as a trade mark and is not used for any other illegal purpose otherwise the trademark will become vulnerable and the company will have to remove the company from trademarks list. A trade mark will be considered to be used properly by employers only when it is marked with proper notation such as ® or ™. (Alexander and Fraser 2014).
Trade mark can be defined as a sign or design that is given to a product to create the unique identity and name of the product. It is either located in a packet of a label of the business organization. It is a process to give a product a unique brand name and to differentiate it from the product that arises from different sources and its competitors. The companies that have been registered under trade mark are MacDonald’s, Starbucks, Gmail and Microsoft and many others. The sign of trade mark are either ® or ™ (Fox 2015).
The trade mark and the brand name can be differentiated legally. Trade mark is a sign that formally represents a business, organization or a product and services while a brand name is the name that the managers in a business house choose for their products to give it a unique name. A brand includes the name of any product while trademark includes name of any product, device, or the organization as a whole. For example Ford is a brand name while Nestle is a company that is trademarked that has a brand name under its known as Maggie (Fox 2015).
Certain sign that cannot be registered as trademarks contains signs that are prohibited by regulation or it cannot be represented graphically. The goods and services that cannot be registered are the ones that cannot be distinguished. The signs that consist of matter the use of which would be likely confusing and the goods or the organization that is substantially identical or registered by the other person cannot be considered under trade mark ( and Bensen 2015).
Registerable trademarks are the ones that can be registered. Trade mark distinctiveness is the term used to explain the registerable trade mark. A brand or a company that will be eligible for registering if it fulfills the criteria of uniqueness is known as registerable trade mark. A company that has distinct character will be regarded as registerable it fulfils all the criteria of trademark policies (Ouellette 2012).
IP Australia is an agency or department of innovation, science and industry that issues patents for inventions. It is an intellectual property law whose main objective is to fill evidence at certain stages of the opposition proceedings.
Four types of IP protection for businesses are:
1. Copyrights,
2. Patents,
3. Trademarks and
4. rade secrets
5. Defensive trade marks
Certification and collective trade marks.
Legal issues can be handled by government and some legal issues can be taken by the higher authorities. The issue can be taking under Trade Marks amendment act 2006 to take some illegal actions issues against them.
Restrains a person from using confidential information obtained from another, when they do not have the consent of the other party. The other measures include Injunction, Anton Pillar order and damages (Weiss 2014).
1. Patents gives rights to the people from stop copying, manufacturing, selling and importing intervention without the permission of the company.
2. It also helps the organizations get protection from pre – determined period allowing the companies to stay away from its competitors.
3. It helps the companies to utilize the invention for its own benefit.
4. Also it can be used for commercial purposes and consider it as assets to sell and buy it for its personal use. It helps in collecting royalties ((Wei 2013).
5. Four objectives of the “Australian Copyright Council” are;
6. To assist the creators and other copyright owners to exercise their rights effectively
7. Raise awareness in the community generally about the importance of copyright seek changes to law and practice to enhance the effectiveness and fairness of copyright; and Foster co-operation amongst bodies representing creators and owners of copyright (Wei 2013).
A copyright collective is a body created bycopyright law or private agreement which engages in collective rights management. Collecting societies have the authority to license copyrighted works and collect royalties as part of compulsory licensing or individual licenses negotiated on behalf of its members. Collecting societies collect royalty payments from users of copyrighted works and distribute royalties to copyright owners (Horwitz and Horwitz 2015).
References
Aaker, D.A. and Biel, A., 2013. Brand equity & advertising: advertising’s role in building strong brands. Psychology Press.
Agarwal, S., Chaturvedi, N. and Johari, P.K., 2014. An Efficient Trademark Image Retrieval using Combination of Shape Descriptor and Salience Features. International Journal of Signal Processing, Image Processing and Pattern Recognition, 7(4), pp.295-302.
Alexander, I. and Fraser, M., 2014. Copyright Reform in Australia: Asking the Right Questions. Journal of Media Law, 6(1), pp.8-20.
Bently, L. and Sherman, B., 2014. Intellectual property law. Oxford University Press, USA.
Fox, R., 2015. Brand Protection, Trademark Protection, International Domain Name Registration.
Horwitz, L. and Horwitz, E., 2015. Effective Presentation of Evidence in Proceedings before the Patent and Trademark Office. Intellectual Property Counseling & Litigation, 6.
Milgrim, R.M. and Bensen, E.E., 2015. Trade Regulation Pertinent to Technology and Trademark Licensing. Milgrim on Trade Secrets, 3.
Ouellette, L.L., 2012. Do Patents Disclose Useful Information?. Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, 25(2), p.531.
Park, L.S., 2013. The Primary Trademark Identifier Requirement: A Change to Current Trademark Law.
Scardamaglia, A. and Adams, M., 2016. Registering Non-Traditional Signs as Trade Marks in Australia: A Retrospective.
Wei, D., 2013. Research on Copyright Extended Collective Administration System. Intellectual Property, 1, p.011.
Weiss, J.W., 2014. Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
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