If you’re planning on registering a Taiwan Trademark for a new business or venture, one of the first steps in ensuring you can get the trademark you want is to do a trademark database search.
If you’re stuck scratching your head at how you do this, you can check Taiwan trademark search guide. But before you decide to check through the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office database, here are five things you should consider when coming up with a trademark name for a new business in Taiwan.
Avoid Generic Words
There certainly are generic sounding words that have been trademarked, but you are much more likely to run into difficulties if you attempt to trademark any generic words, and it could mean that TIPO reject your trademark application. If a generic word is necessary to describe your services though, you could combine a phrase including generic words and unique ones, to give you a greater chance of succeeding.
Avoid Purely Descriptive Words
By descriptive words, we mean attempting to trademark a specific characteristic, ingredient, function, purpose or feature for a product or service. While purely descriptive trademarks may give you the advantage of easily describing what it is you offer, they are usually only granted if that specific term has already become synonymous with your brand. If you already have an established company outside Taiwan that notably makes use of a descriptive trademark and is well known, then this may increase your chance, but otherwise you may have trouble.
Ensure The Trademark Isn’t Restrictive
As you’ll be paying money to register a trademark, and going through the process of typically waiting 8-10 months before an application for a Taiwan trademark is approved or denied, you want to ensure you get it right first time, and that the trademark is versatile enough if your business decides to expand in other areas. For example, if you’re setting up a business selling cars, but there’s the possibility you might sell other vehicles in the future, having the word “cars” as part of your trademark phrase might not be the best idea.
Consider Inventing A Word
The more unique your trademark is, the better chance you have of it being approved. You could consider creating a catchy sounding word that doesn’t exist yet, much like Pepsi and Xerox did. This means that as long as you do all the other steps right when applying for a trademark, you’re very likely to get this trademark without any fuss, and avoid any future legal difficulties from other businesses surrounding it.
Check Domain Name Availability
If you’re basing the core of your business around a particular name you want to be synonymous with, then it’s a good idea to check if that domain name is available so you can have a website that matches it. You may have already looked for .com domain name, but depending on your business, you may also want .tw domain to represent your presence in Taiwan.
We hope this article will help you conduct some preliminary brain-storming steps before you’re ready to conduct a proper Taiwan trademark search. If you’re looking for comprehensive steps taking you through the full process of successfully obtaining a trademark in Taiwan, you can check our guide to applying for a Taiwan Trademark here.
Another, much easier and quicker way to secure the trademark you need is to use the services of a company with boots on the ground in Taiwan that specializes in obtaining trademarks for businesses. MUSA Trademark is one such company, based here in the heart of Taipei. If you’d like to have a chat about obtaining a Taiwan trademark, we’d be more than happy to assist you any time.