Trademark definition: A trademark is a specific type of intellectual property - a brand - that represents your product or business. Often the most valuable asset of your business, a trademark can be a brand name, a business name, a logo, a slogan, phrase, tagline or expression that distinguishes your products or services from your competitors.

Click here to read the legal trademark definition and about different types of registrable trademarks.

You can identify your trademark by using the superscript TM symbol that looks like this ™. However, if you have a registered trademark, you can identify it by using the superscript R symbol inside a circle: ®

A trademark may belong to a business or an individual who wishes to identify and protect their brand.

In New Zealand, a trademark application must be submitted to the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) to be examined and approved by them. Once all the necessary steps have successfully been completed and your trademark is registered - only then can you use the registered trademark symbol - ®.

Trademark registrations are country-specific, so you need to ensure that you register a trademark name in all the countries where you wish to enjoy legal trademark protection.

We also provide services in Australia, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia and Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg).

Take a look at our websites by clicking the links above, or get in touch and let us know which countries you are interested in and we can get back to you with more information.

You can apply for the following types of trademarks via DIY Trademarks.

• Brand names

• Slogans/phrases

• Logos

If you have a non-traditional trademark you want to protect, you’ll need to talk to a trademark expert and get professional advice on how to go about this.

A trademark registration gives you the exclusive right to use your brand for the goods and services you’ve protected it for.

After the hard work of establishing your product or service and building your business and its reputation, the last thing you need is for a competitor to mimic your products or business or to pass off their goods and services as your authentic brand.

With a registered trademark you have legal grounds to take action against anyone who infringes your trademark by using the same or a confusingly similar mark. You can protect your brand and your reputation from trademark infringement and ensure that you retain the trust and loyalty of your customers, which you have worked hard to earn.

Your registered business name and logo will continue to distinguish you from similar competitors and help to ensure that no copycats harm your business.

When you start a new business, trademark protection might not be top of mind, but as your business grows and succeeds, your brand can become a very powerful asset, and you need to ensure your brand is protected.

A registered trademark will give you that peace of mind and also send a powerful signal to your customers that you believe your brand is an investment worth protecting. It’s worth doing before it’s too late.

Do you want to trademark a logo or get a trademark business name? Let’s look at how to trademark a name.

When you decide to register a trademark in New Zealand, you need to follow the legal process set out by the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ). Our website was created by trademark lawyers who understand the requirements and the trademark process backwards. We help to cut the red-tape and make trademark registration online a quick and easy, no-sweat process for anyone. You don’t need a lawyer and you don’t need to spend time struggling through a clunky trademark application process. As our customers confirm, it’s a breeze, with Trademarks Online.

We also provide trademark registration services in Australia, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore and Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg).

Please get in touch if you’d like more information.

Trademarks Online NZ is part of the Trademark Planet group. It was built by IP lawyers who have a wealth of experience in intellectual property, including trademarks, patents, branding and copyright.

With decades of local and international experience in the IP world, we are acutely aware of what can trip people up during the trademark registration process. We built Trademarks Online to ensure that many of the usual stumbling blocks are eliminated, and the process to register a trademark is as straightforward as possible. Once you've chosen your trademark that you’d like to protect in New Zealand, Trademarks Online is the perfect place to do this. Our online application service will make the trademark application process a breeze.

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Trademarks Online is the fastest, easiest way to protect your brand. Our customer testimonials are confirmation that it truly is.

Registering a trademark can be a time-consuming, confusing process if you try doing it yourself on government websites using tools that are not user-friendly to individuals, who are not trademark attorneys.

You might miss important details in your application. Our smart technology makes selecting the relevant classes, products and services easy.

It can be expensive, if you pay trademark lawyers to do the application for you.

Trademarks Online is cost efficient - we offer a fully-automated, self-service solution. No lawyers required.

The revolutionary software of Trademarks Online makes trademark registration online a fast and affordable 4-step process.

Being a startup itself, Trademarks Online is very much aware that cost certainty and value for money are two huge factors when getting help to protect your brand. As we've said, you don't pay for lawyers to do the work each time. We did that hard work in advance. Check out our pricing page.

For example, costs for one trademark in one class would be $420 plus GST.

After Trademarks Online has submitted your New Zealand trademark application, we'll send you email updates as things happen, specifically:

1. if the Trademark Office approves your application, we'll let you know the good news by email!

2. if your application is not automatically approved and the Trademark office raises an issue, our consultants will take a look at the report and provide options.

Your application may be held up if:

• another person or company has an earlier trademark registration identical or similar to your trademark.

• your trademark does not satisfy the criteria for registration.

• another person or company formally submits a trademark opposition to the registration of your trademark.

There may be occasions when your trademark application is unable to satisfy all of the Trademark Office requirements. In this case, your trademark application won't be able to proceed to acceptance or registration.

We pride ourselves on helping businesses successfully register trademarks. Feel free to get in touch anytime during business hours.

4. if your trademark is registered, we'll email you the trademark registration certificate and include details of how to renew your trademark in due course. You will be a trademark registrant, and can use the registered trademark symbol ® with your trademark!

Your New Zealand trademark application via Trademarks Online takes a matter of minutes (depends how fast you are!).

Protection starts from the day you submit your application.

Once submitted, your trademark application will be examined by the Trademark Office usually within about 4 months and they'll let us know if it's accepted or if there are objections.

Trademarks Online will keep you up to date with progress by email and if there are any objections, we have a team of consultants available to help.

If you need to answer any Trademark Office objections, this process can take anywhere from a day upwards to many months (if you are really slow). It depends on how fast you respond and how many questions the Trademark Office has for you. There are usually a few different options we can try to overcome the objections.

If the trademark application is accepted then the application is published and 3 months allowed for others to object - they'd need a good reason though.

If there is no opposition to your trade mark within three months, then your application should be registered at a minimum of six months after the filing date.

How long will it take before my trademark is registered?This article will explain the process in more detail, with an infographic diagram showing you each step towards registration.

We submit trademark applications to the Trademark Office as soon as we have confirmed we have all the required information to submit a valid application, within one business day.

If you change your mind and cancel your order before the trademark application has been submitted to the Trademark Office, we will refund you the fees paid minus $100 to cover non-refundable payment gateway and validation/administrative costs.

Once your trademark application has been submitted to the Trademark Office, it is not possible to get a refund because the official Trademark Office fees have been paid.

We're here to help you along the way. If you have any questions at all, email us at hello.nz@trademarkplanet.com or give us a call at +64 (09) 888 0540.

Trademark infringement is when someone else uses your trademark or a closely similar trademark to yours for goods or services that are the same as yours (without your permission!).

If you have a trademark registration, you can take action against them to prevent their continued use of your trademark. But your trademark must be registered first!

This is when someone opposes your application to register a trademark.

After your trademark application is accepted for registration by the Trademark Office, it is advertised for a time period (usually two to three months) before it is registered. During this time, known as the opposition period, other parties can oppose registration by filing an opposition with the Trademark Office.

Who can oppose a trademark application? Any individual, company or group can file an opposition to a trademark application. The opponent does not need to be the owner of a similar mark or have any commercial interest in the outcome in order to file the opposition.

What are grounds for a trademark opposition? The most common grounds for opposition are that the trademark lacks distinctiveness, is too similar to an earlier registered trademark and is likely to cause confusion - or that the trademark applicant is not the owner of the trademark.

Read this article for more information about trademark opposition.

Trademarks can exist forever provided that they are renewed every ten years.

Trademarks can be renewed one-year before the expiry date. If a trademark is not renewed before the renewal deadline, you have a further year to restore the trademark.

If you want to renew your trademark, feel free to get in touch with us.

Each country has its own laws and practices regarding trademarks. You will need to apply for protection in the individual countries where you wish to register your trademark.

We also provide services in Australia, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia and Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg).

Contact us if you also wish to register your trademark in any other countries.