Rebranding – make sure you have taken care to protect your brand

Transfer of copyright and registration

In the case of rebranding, the first thing you should do is to ensure the transfer of copyright to names, logos, animations or other works created for your company. 

File applications for new trade marks and designs to obtain protection. The registration of trade marks guarantees the monopoly on their use in the given territory for the goods and services that you indicated in your application. 

At this stage, consider which elements you want to protect. The most important thing is to register the new logo as a trade mark. Even if you already have a trade mark registration for your logo, if you change the graphic representation then it is a different mark and a new application may be necessary. 

Rebranding is not just a change of logo

When changing the look of your product packaging, consider protecting the new look of your packaging with industrial designs. Are you introducing new graphic symbols or have you elaborated printer’s marks? Like elements of your website layout, they can also be protected by industrial designs. 

If a certain graphic motif is dominant in the new image and meets the prerequisites for registration, it should be protected as an industrial design. You can use such a graphic motif on your website, in the design of your premises or on printed materials. This is why you should protect it from unauthorised copying. 

Protect animations

Short animations using logos or logo elements become increasingly popular, particularly in the multimedia industry. This is natural, because they attract the recipient’s attention more strongly. Such animations, motion marks or multimedia marks can also be registered and protected as trade marks. Since they will be associated with your business, it is important to protect them from unlawful copying. 

Do all trade marks require new registration?

When choosing trade marks and designs for registration, decide which ones you actually want and need to register. Word trade marks do not need to be re-registered if they are already protected and the scope of goods or services for which they are used has not increased. 

It is good to analyse graphic symbols or designs for their similarity and select the appropriate strategy that will ensure the broadest protection and optimisation of costs. 

What is also good to remember? 

When making applications for new trade marks during rebranding, it happens that this stage is carried out at an early stage of change. Often one or two versions are selected for the trade mark application. And sometimes it turns out that a slightly modified version is used instead of the one that was in the trade mark application. Once the rebranding process is complete, it is good to compare the trade marks we have registered with the markings that are actually used.

I know from experience that additional trade marks or elements may appear after the submission of a trade mark application. A new previously unconsidered product or service emerges. Therefore, make a summary at the end. Check what you have in your IP rights portfolio and if it is consistent with what you use: 

• ✅ do you use the trade marks in the same form that was included in the application?
• ✅ are there any new goods or services ? 
• ✅ are there any new solutions that should be analysed and protected? 
• ✅ is there anything you have omitted?

Many entrepreneurs carry out this type of audit now and then to make sure their protection is up to date and covers all or at least major aspects of their brand image. 

Finally, when protection is ensured, remember to monitor infringement issues and applications for similar trade marks. In other words, you need to take care of and, if necessary, enforce the right you have obtained. 

If you consider rebranding or are in the process of doing so, please contact us to consult on securing your brand and products.