How to Trademark in South Africa

In business, names, brands, and catchphrases have influence. A crucial first step for a company that wants to ensure that its name stays distinctive is to establish your ownership of and rights to it. The majority of business owners make the error of believing that by registering their company with the CIPC, they automatically get ownership of the name rights, but this is only partially true. To help safeguard your name or brand from infringement or misuse of intellectual property as your company expands, you should also take the following step and register a trademark.

A trademark.

A trademark is typically a brand name, a tagline, or a logo. It will set your company’s services or products apart from those of the opposition. Another benefit is a trademark: An appreciation for the time and effort you invested in creating a distinctive name, brand, or logo, as well as a potential asset to be added to your balance sheet.

How to sign up

A trademark is formally registered to maintain its distinctiveness and to make sure that nobody benefits from it. Legal action may be taken when two trademarks are confusingly similar. Both companies were bakeries in a recent court case, Union Steam Bakery (Pty) Limited v. Nichas. Middelburg was the location of Union Bakery (later Union Steam Bakery). While his rivals operated in the 80-kilometer-distance town of Bethel, they carried on business under the name Union Bakery in Middelburg. Although there was no hostility between the companies, the rival of Union Steam began distributing bread to businesses in Middelburg. The word “Union” was imprinted on the competitor’s bread. The Bethel bakery was ordered to stop doing this by the court because it would cause confusion.

A trademark can only be protected and then defended under the Trademark Act of 1993 (Act 194 of 1993) if it is registered. If Union Steam Bakery had not registered their trademark, they would not have been able to protect the reputation of their mark.

What qualifies a trademark as being approved?

To be eligible for trademark protection in South Africa, a trademark registration must satisfy two essential conditions:

1. They must be recognizable.

2. It must be used commercially.

Although a trademark registration is perpetually protected, it must be renewed every ten years. Payment of the required renewal fee is also required.

When are the various trademark symbols permitted to be used?

Different symbols that indicate a trademark’s status and degree of legal protection are used to identify it. When referencing a trademark in a document or marketing materials, the relevant symbol must be used.