Trademark Lawyer in Manila: How to Apply for a Trademark for your Brand in the Philippines

Trademark Lawyer in Manila: How to Apply for a Trademark for your Brand in the Philippines

 

If you’re starting a business and a brand in the Philippines, or anywhere in the world, you definitely need to protect yourself by applying for the proper trademark for your brand.

I honestly didn’t know much about this, but thanks to my friend, Trademarks and Copyrights Consultant Richard Tenorio of TrademarksManila, I was able to fully understand what trademarking a brand entails. 

First, a trademark is for the brand itself, like Coca-Cola, Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo, Wingman or the likes. Once a brand is trademarked, its owner will have exclusive rights to use the same.

Copyrights on the other hand are for the content of literary works like books. The protection given by Copyrights is only limited to the content of a particular book and not on the name of the book. Meaning, other parties may still use the same book title as long as the content is different.

For example, “Reader’s Digest” have Trademark registration giving them exclusive rights to use it. They also have monthly copyright applications for each issue, since they also want to protect the contents of each of the monthly publication of Reader’s Digest.

Thus, in order for you to have exclusive rights to use “YOUR BRAND”, we should apply for a trademark registration for it.

 

 

Provided here-under are the basic Trademark info for your reference:

Requirements:

1. Name and address of the applicant (applicant may either be an individual or a company)

2. Actual image of the brand/product intended to be registered

3. Colors to be claimed – A trademark may be filed in black and white or in color/colors. I however, recommend to have it filed in black & white to claim broader protection.

4. List of products – Restaurant services – Please confirm.

 

 

Process:

1. Trademark Search – A comprehensive search has to be conducted first before filing a trademark application to determine if the proposed trademark is available for registration. That is, to avoid future conflict with trademarks that are already existing in the records of the IPOPHL (Trademarks Office) which are either similar or confusingly similar.

2. Filing of the application –  as soon as the search is done, we may immediately file the application. The trademark is protected from the date of filing.

3. Examination period – It normally takes a minimum of 2 to 3 months (from the date of filing) before we could receive the official notice from the examiner. The said examiner will either ask for an additional document/information or will recommend your application to be published in the IPOPHL electronic Gazette. I am closely monitoring my accounts and constantly coordinating with examiners to expedite the process.

4. Publication of Trademarks online – should the examiner finds everything in order and upon payment of the Publication fees, our trademark will be published online as notice to the public that you are registering your trademark and giving other parties a period of 30 within which to oppose the same.

5. 2nd Publcation – if after the 30-day period and nobody opposes your application, it will again be published but this time as a registered trademark.

6. Issuance of the Certificate of Registation – after 2 to 3 weeks (minimum) from the 2nd publication, the actual certificate of registration will be prepared and released.

 

 

 

Also, Richard Tenorio says that a trademark registration is valid for 10 years (renewable every 10 years).

So if you need to protect yourself and your business, be sure to call a Trademark and Copyrights consultant to ensure you are able to fully protect your company and yourself! Mention you found him on WhenInManila.com for the special WIM rate!

 

Richard M. Tenorio – Trademarks and Copyrights Consultant

TrademarksManila

email: rmtenorio@trademarksmanila.com

 

Trademark Lawyer in Manila: How to Apply for a Trademark for your Brand in the Philippines