Should a trademark be registered in the name of the natural person who is the business leader or in the name of the company?
When a business executive of a small or medium-sized enterprise consults with us to register, as trademark, the name of his company, his domain name or the name of his services or products, we usually plan a first meeting at which we discuss together its activity and the envisaged development.
This is in order to advise him as well as best as possible on the type of deposit to be considered, on the categories of services and products to protect (▶ the wording of the class names of these goods and services is often very important) and on the availability of the mark he wishes to protect (▶ this is to avoid having to change the trademark once its notoriety has been established is established and losing all the investments made).
Among all the questions we usually address in such interviews, we will focus here on an issue that customers never really ask themselves but which is nevertheless very important: should the trademark be registered in the name of the manager or in the name of his or her company?
Each of these hypotheses has advantages and disadvantages and the final choice - which is not irreversible (subject to formalities) - often depends on each individual case.
What is our advice?
✔ Start a real reflection on your brand;
✔ Get advice upstream.
