Trademark registration is more valuable now in Spring of 2020 than it ever has been before. Now, this is a function of two things. Number one, as I’ve said before, the value of a trademark registration seems to always been growing and is always more valuable than it was previously for several reasons that I’m going to get to in a moment. But now, because of the worldwide health and economic crisis as a result of COVID-19 and coronavirus, the value of a protected trademark is even more important, especially to small businesses.
Trademark registration’s valuable under any circumstances because it in the USPTO’s database that can be searched over the time:
- the owner gets to use the R with a circle – ® – symbol;
- it gives the owner presumptions if they ever have to go to court;
- registration makes things generally faster and easier and cheaper to resolve in a dispute; and
- it has real value regarding disputes related to domain names and social media and Amazon brand registry and other places online.
Because of these things, trademark registrations are extremely valuable at any time and more valuable now than they ever have been before because the amount of commerce and traffic and impressions and advertising online, of course, has continued to grow. And because the value and role of brands in our lives every day, whether it’s apps on a phone, advertisements on a webpage, billboards at a sporting event. Everywhere we go, we’re inundated with brands and that is only continuing to grow.
But now that we face an economic crisis that impacts all small businesses, and even those that are thriving have to deal with the fact that the economy as a whole is taking a hit, trademark registration is even more valuable. A protected trademark means that the risk for having to defend a claim or a lawsuit against the brand and its name is significantly reduced. While the value of reducing that risk is always tremendous, in a time where expenditures are even more limited and resources may be more limited, the value of reducing that risk is even greater.
The flip side of that is useful as well: the value of being able to more quickly, more easily in general, stop someone who’s copying or infringing or damaging your brand is more valuable today. Let’s face it, nobody ever wants to spend a lot of money on lawyers for a dispute or having to re-brand. Think about how expensive having to re-brand can be and the challenges that that creates for a business and its customers. Nobody ever wants to do that; and now it’s even more important to be able to reduce that risk.
For these reasons, the investment in a trademark registration is a tremendous investment to help insure any brand at any time, especially now.
