That’s it, your entrepreneurial project is well linked and you want to start your business and register a trademark? Here are the steps and our advice to ensure that the fruits of your hard work are well protected for the years to come… [Article co-written with the entrepreneurs’ blog sav.35.fr].
INPI: the essential step to register a trademark
The INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property) is the public institution supervised by the Ministry of Economy, which develops and manages industrial property rights.
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Any entrepreneur wishing to register a trademark, patent, design or model, etc., must do so with this structure to guarantee their rights against competition or counterfeiting.
The basics of trademarks
Before registering your trademark with the INPI, you can freely browse the databases to ensure that the trademark you wish to register is not already registered.
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When you conduct a search, you will discover which classification(s) the selected trademark(s) is already registered under.
The similarity search
The INPI provides a similarity search that allows us to analyze the similarities (visual, spelling, phonetic, and intellectual) that may exist between the trademark you wish to register and already registered trademarks.
This paid service ensures you, if available, that there is no other trademark that could use your state of the art and prevent you from using it.
If you are active in a highly competitive sector or if you have serious doubts about your trademark choice, we can only recommend that you invest in this search to avoid any legal issues. Imagine having to rebuild all your work to create a new trademark! This service costs between €150 and €180 depending on the number of categories you wish to register with the INPI.
Think, anticipate, and classify!
As you understand, when you submit a trademark, you must choose the classification(s) of the products and services for which you wish to register your name. The Nice classification therefore covers 45 categories of products and services.
You can register your trademark in any number of classes. The first electronic submission costs €190 for one class, to which you must add €40 for each additional class.
It is important to carefully consider the different products and services you will sell and the changes you may make to your business. Because when registering a trademark, it is important to register all classes at once, to avoid paying registration fees multiple times.
So think carefully about all the categories that are relevant to your business.
Stand out from your competitors!
Don’t lie to file your sign; it will take you time. Not so much on the administrative level, but more on the thinking you need to do in advance.
To create your brand identity, you need to ask yourself the right questions:
- What are you selling? What is your mission?
- What is your deep identity, what are your values?
- What is your goal?
- What do you want to share through your brand?
- What do you want to do differently in the market?
After all, you need to find the elements that distinguish you from your competitors.
Once you have the answers to these questions, you can work on finding cultural references (historical, popular…), colors, images, etc., which will allow you to create resonance in your purpose.
The capferous prism helps you determine the different elements that make up your brand identity.
Don’t forget to register your domain name for your website
One last step you must not neglect when registering your trademark is to reserve your domain name (and even your domain names) to create your website.
In fact, if you do not ensure that your brand name is available on the Internet and do not quickly reserve your domain with a registrar, some may buy them ahead of you and prevent you from using them.
If there are corrective measures, it is better to avoid lengthy procedures and financial negotiations to purchase a website name. Remember to reserve different extensions such as .fr, .com, and others when working in other countries.