CHECK LIST FOR GETTING PROTECTED:
• Choose your brand name. • Get it cleared to ensure no-one else is using it in your field. There are a number of ways of doing this such as: • Seeing if the domain name corresponding to your brand name is free (if not free, check who owns it (
www.whois.com));
• Doing an internet search; • Checking Companies House (
www.companieshouse.org.uk); • Checking the various Patent Office databases to see if anyone has any registered trade marks or designs;
Whilst some or all of this can be easily done by you, it is important to get a legal advisor to interpret what you have discovered. Often what may appear a problem with a prior right, can be overcome, and equally what may at first blush seem all clear could pose hidden problems.
• Once cleared, choose whether you want to go for a registered trade mark or design (or both).
• Decide the territory (or territories) in which you want protection – and the goods or services you want protected.
• Pay the filing fees and any associated legal fees. • Make the application.
THE INTERNET AND THE DIGITAL AGE
The opportunities afforded by the World Wide Web in terms of sales and the promotion and advertising of your business are varied and many. But with the huge potential of communicating with and to a limitless worldwide audience there comes an equal danger of limitless damage to your brand and business. Once an exclusive design, for example, is published on the Internet without your permission, no amount of legal letters will put a stop to its circulation and widespread use.
There is no real difference in legal terms between the remedies available for online infringement and those for infringement in other media. The manifold means of sending, receiving and sharing information, whether social networking, blogging, or other may offer you numerous choices of how to exploit your brand. Ways of enforcing and protecting your brand remain the same as in other media, but it can certainly make it more difficult to contain any damage when such problems can be spread over many territories and often hidden under anonymous, fake or web nicknames.
There are things you can do to at least limit the potential dangers. For example:
If you use valuable or exclusive photographs on your business website, ensure they are watermarked or digimarked, or are of low resolution quality which will at least put off someone merely screen-grabbing them from the site for onward distribution.
www.fashionfringe.co.uk
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