Brand protection and management

We specialise in providing Trademark registrations, and general advice on brand protection and commercialisation for companies and individuals based anywhere in the world.

But we do more than just Trademark registrations, we work with our clients on a range of issues to assist them in making their trademarks work for them – by providing answers to questions like:

• How much your brand is really worth, and how to reflect that value in your balance sheet
• Why you should protect your brand
• How you can structure your business and your brand protection so that your assets are secured

At Aspect Legal, we specialise in providing you with:

• Logo protection
• Brand protection
• Structuring – for asset protection and tax minimisation
• Brand Valuations
• Making money from your brand through commercialising, licensing, franchising etc
• Enforcing your trademark

Why use us?

Fast efficient service

We understand the importance of fast and efficient service we have clients spread throughout Australia and beyond distance is no barrier to service. We will file your trademark within 24 hours of your application to us.

Cost effective

Our service starts with a free very high level basic search, so if your trademark isn’t available….it costs you nothing to find out.

Protection you can count on

We are experienced in drafting your trademark specifications to provide the best protection for you both now, and in the future.

Experience in getting your trademark through

We know what it takes to get your trademark registered.

We are experienced at dealing with all range of adverse reports from the trademarks office, and with preparing evidence to give your application the best possible chance for approval.

We stop at nothing to get your trademark registered!

Reliability

We operate on the philosophy that you should be equipped with good advice before you spend time and money on a trademark application, as to whether you will be likely to be awarded the protection you are seeking. We are experienced in advising you from the start whether your mark is registrable or is likely to be opposed so you dont waste your time and money.

Communication

We communicate with you at every stage of the application process, so you know exactly how your application is progressing.

A little bit more

And most importantly, we believe that a trademark registration is only the beginning. We have a range of products and services that assist you in valuing your trade mark, reflecting the value in your business, capitalising on that value, and protecting the value into the future.

More about trade marks

The branding of your business – what distinguishes your goods and services from those of your competitor – is critical in today’s highly competitive commercial environment. Trade marks identify your business and can be your most valuable asset.

A company’s name is quite often it’s most valuable asset. However many companies fail to protect this asset because they don’t understand the risk, and how small the price is to protect that risk.

How much do you think it would cost your company to re-brand your name or your products? Not much?

Below is a chart with some simple calculations of the common costs incurred in a brand change due to the mark being challenged:

Re-design of name / logo	$5,000
Changes to website	$5,000
Purchase of a new domain name	$200
Changing signage	$5,000
New letterhead stationery	$1000
Envelopes	$500
With compliment slips	$500
New business cards for all staff (20)	$4,000
Firm brochures (x3)
- re-design	$2,000
- re-print	$2,000
- re-distribute	$1,000
Yellowpages listing	$1,000
Letter to all clients to advise of change – paper, postage, time	$2,000
New advertising to public	$5,000
Litigation	$50,000
Lost advertising (10 years x $10,000 per year)	$100,000
TOTAL	>$170,000

We have had much experience in dealing with clients who have come to us with attempts to protect their brand when it is under attack. Our advice unfortunately has often been that even though some of these companies had been using their name and brand for years, because they had failed to take the steps to protect their name, they were now open to attack and forced to spend money in legal costs and time in defending their use of their own name. Our message to clients is therefore that they have to be proactive in protecting what is really one of their most important assets, their brand.

Company and business name registrations do not provide you with ownership of that name. A registered trade mark is ownership of that mark, and an asset that can both protect your business and add value to your balance sheet.

Even though you have been trading for years, you could be attacked by another company using your name, and engaged in costly legal battles (the average legal battle in the Supreme Court can cost businesses involved tens of thousands of dollars) that are also costly in the time that it takes you away from your core business, and at worst, forced to pay their legal costs, and change your identity total re-brand. This can happen to anyone.

We have numerous examples of types of branding matters that our clients bring to us over and over again. In one matter that we have dealt with, our client challenged a name held by a dental practice, consequently costing the other dentist over $6,000 in legal costs alone just to defend their use of the name. And in the end they were forced to give a free licence to our client for the use of the name. All because they had not got in early enough with their own trademark protection. The case for our client would have been much easier had they gotten in with a trade mark application only 2 months earlier than when they finally acted.

Another client came to us to register their very distinctive name that they had been using for over 7 years, only to find that a trade mark registration had been awarded to another company that had been in business for only 4 years. Our client was then forced to make a tough decision about whether to totally re-brand (a very costly exercise given the amount of time they had been in business, and their clients connection with the name) or to engage in costly legal action to attempt to get back something that should have been theirs.

At Aspect Legal, we understand the importance of our client’s brands, and work with them to not just provide protection, but also to make the most commercial advantage out of that protection, turning a trade mark into a saleable asset that is reflected in their balance sheet, and contributes to the future succession planning of the business.

Our team has extensive experience in acting for a range of national and international companies in protecting, managing and enforcing their brands. We also work with foreign firms in providing the most prompt and cost effective trade mark advice and protection overseas.

As specialists in this area, we are well-equipped to manage your trade mark portfolio – whether it consists of brands, words, logos, signs, shapes, colours, sounds and scents – in the following ways:

• advising generally on your legal rights associated with your trade marks or trade names
• conducting comprehensive trade mark searches to ensure the availability and registrability of your proposed trade mark
• preparing and filing trade mark applications in Australia and overseas
• responding to examination reports and prosecuting trade mark applications to registration
• renewals
• conducting opposition and non-use proceedings
• enforcing your registered trade mark in cases of infringement
• licensing, assignments and other commercial arrangements
• effecting the acquisition and disposal of trade marks in commercial transactions
• business and company name advice and registration
• providing domain name advice, registrations and transfers
• IP Audits

We pride ourselves on our integrated approach to the proper management of your trade mark portfolio.