 Hi guys. Welcome back to my YouTube channel. So those of you who are here for the first time, read about me in the description box. In today's topic, I'm going to discuss a very important topic with you guys, which is related to your business, the brand name that you have. And specifically if you are in Canada and your business is in Canada, then it means that you need to know about the intellectual property rights associated with your trademark. So what is a trademark? How does it work? Where do you register it? What are the fees involved in it? Everything is I'm going to share in this vlog and you do not know how important it is. Recently, I was dealing with a case and I thought that this information is very much lacked specifically in the small and the medium-sized business owners relating to food and restaurant industry. So in today's vlog, this is an initiative where I will discuss about some of the trademarks. If you want to get in touch with me, the link is in the description box. If you have any other question query concern, you can put it in the comment section. However, this is not legal advice. This is just general awareness that I'm trying to spread and there is always a disclaimer in my description box. So basically, the trademark is basically a name or design of your whole brand. It is your branding. Now people start associating with you with this brand. In fact, all the brands you see on the screen are reliable factor and trust factor. If people and customer cannot rely with you, they will probably just move on with somebody else because there are many brands in the market doing that. So why does, how does your brand stand out? What does it pitch? And what is its most, you know, its milestone that you have to show through it? What is the message that you're conveying to the consumer? Everything is done through your trademark. Over the period of time, what happens is that your business and service is not just associated with your name or anything. It is now an association with your trademark. So people spend so much on trademarks. You can't believe the Amazon brand name, just the word Amazon here on your screen is basically for $23.8 billion itself. Now this brand, if Amazon ever goes for auction in the market, then this brand, the minimum bid it is getting is $23.8 billion. Now Amazon is a very big company. Let's come to a smaller companies like the recent case of in which the federal code of Canada in Toys R Us versus Herbs R Us actually, you know, recognized part of how a trademark infringement takes place. Now in this case, Herbs R Us was selling marijuana in the names of, in Herbs R Us, named without or with intention that does not matter in a trademark case, but it was deceptively so similar to Toys R Us, which is a 30-year-old brand in Canada and in America dealing with toys and kids stuff that it wanted to take an injunction for this release. And so it sued Herbs R Us. Herbs R Us was instructed by the code to remove its name and $30,000 in terms of the damages it had already done. It's all its sales were banned by the code and all of it. So that is how important a trademark is. Now why do you want to register your trademark? I will tell you why do you first you have to ask your question. Why do you want to register your real estate? You want to register your real estate in your name so that maybe after some crime or by grace of God, somebody happens to take possession of your real estate property. What are you going to do? So exactly happens with a trademark. Why do you want to register it is because you will have a legal title to it. Now if somebody is trying to be deceptively similar, create confusion in the market with your kind of trademark, if it at all reaches that level or even if it does not, with just because of that name and because of the service you provide, if it at all happens then how will you claim it? Yes, there is an option for people for the trademarks which are not registered but that is such you have to prove such substantially because it evidence in that that it won't be easy for a smaller or medium-sized business to do that. So it is always better as a startup as any kind of startup as a small business as a medium-sized business that you register your trademark. One thing that's clarifying in the beginning is that what trademark is not. People usually confuse trademarks with patents with other intellectual property like copyright but trademark is not that. Trademark is basically one of the combination of words, sounds, design, taste, colors, textures, sense, moving images, three-dimensional shapes, modes of packaging or holograms used to distinguish the goods or services of one person or organization from those of others. Patents, what are they? Patents basically cover new and useful inventions. So now if somebody makes a vaccination for COVID that whole system of making that vaccination is going to be a patent. So patent is mode of invention. Copyright, copyright is basically all your artistic work, your dramatic work, your literary work, your musical work. It is the subject matter of the performance. What is an industrial design? Then industrial design are basically visual features of shape, configuration, pattern, ornament or any combination that applies to a finished particle. So all these are important differences that you want to know about because trademark out of this is the most common, the most infringed and the most disputed thing that is going in code. Now an important thing when we come to trademark discussion is that when you register your trademark under the trademark act you get the soul right to use the trademark for a period of 10 years after which you can get it renewed. However under common law you will have rights because you have been using it for so long but you do not want to come into that expensive long legal battle which many people figure because just because of the fact that they lack this awareness and they do not think that it is such an integral part of their business. Very interestingly there are cases in which they also suggest you what you cannot register and the trademark act also specifically in Canada will tell you that what you cannot register. For example people have tried to register their names and nicknames guys you cannot do that you can't register your names and nicknames then there are places of origin that you can't register like for example if something is coming from Ontario wines then you cannot register Ontario wines winery you have to make sure that it is a descriptive word which is different. Many people sometimes ask these are some of the FAQs who is a person who can register a trademark. Any person individual proprietorship partnership trade union association joint winter or corporation can register a trademark so person definition is very wide under the trademarks act. Now when you are ready what happens the next step is that you go to file a trademark application you have to prepare a trademark application in all with all the details names and mailing address of the applicant or representation of description of both of the trademark a statement and specific and ordinary commercial terms of goods and services associated with the trademark the statement of goods and services grouped according to the nice classification nice as a UN classification when it comes to intellectual property rights the application fee or any other requirements specific to the type of trademark sought to be registered so you have to make sure that all the application is completely ready and good to go then there is also a representation of description that is associated to your application for color trademark for example you will have to show that what are the color what are the features like Toys R Us they have registered so your one trademark can be registered under multiple names so it can be registered under multiple classes I mean it can be registered with description like what the product deals with then it can register with the colors the R Us of Toys R Us is also registered so you can be very sure that the whole thing is getting registered under different classes once you have filed your application then begins the examination process the CIPO officers are going to examine under trademark act and regulation and if they have any objection they're going to raise that objection and you will get an examination hearing in which you and your council maybe or your trademark agent would go and would have to discuss about what this whole issue is about and who address that issue another of your responsibilities as trademark owner is to make sure that you use the trademark under section 45 of the trademark act otherwise the registrar has the power to cancel that trademark if someone else brings in that application that that person is not using the trademark even the trademark is registered so make sure the goods and services that you're providing are under the name that that is your trademark trademark is like any other form of property you can sell you can be quick you can assign trademark like any other property very interesting to know that many many register trademarks have become part of everyday language but you cannot use them to describe your goods or services for a few examples you can see yo-yo a bubble wrap or nelex or vaseline all of these they are trademarks dealing with the specific service and with the specific good so what you have to be sure is you do not want them to be included in your name so because these are itself trademarks and brand names but because of the because they have been registered look at the my look at the level of common thing they have become in common parlance that everything else can be related to them we for example we do not know catch up was a trademark which was registered apple per se is a apple the logo of apple it's a trademark which is registered so you have to be very careful about the trademark registered by someone else to describe your own goods and services so this whole process can sometimes be a very long and good process because if people who have experience would usually know that it is around 12 to 18 months which can last a trademark registration for so you have to be sure that your whole application process is ready if you would like this whole initiative about me sharing all the information locally available for you guys and as a small business owner or maybe as a medium-sized business owner then do hit the like subscribe button and you can also get in touch with me the link is in the description box thank you for today good day and bye bye