Earlier today, we talked about labels such as ‘Gucci’, Nike, Coca-Cola among others. We told you that under the law, these are called trademarks because they are used to identify one product of one company from those of another company.
Now we want to talk about how to protect your brand or label using the law.
The law allows any person who owns a product with a name (trademark) to protect it from misuse and to determine how their name will be used. This is done by registering that trademark.
In Uganda, the body in charge of registering such trademarks is called Uganda Registration Services Bureau under its intellectual property registry.
Step 1: You must check and make sure that the name of your product does not already exist. (You must pay a certain fee for this service).
Step 2: Once you are sure that your name is not like an existing one, then you must apply for the registration of your trademark. The application must contain the proposed trademark (symbol, phrase, word, etc), the class /nature of product it is for, your name, address, and the signature.
Step 3: Once the Intellectual property registry has had a look at your application and found that it meets all the requirements, then it will advertise your application in the official newspaper (Gazette) for 60 days.
Step 4: If no one objects to your application after the 60 days of the advertisement, the Registrar shall register the trademark and issue you a Certificate of registration. (You will still have to pay a fee for this step).
📷:Unsplash
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