Trademark monitoring is important when it comes to protecting the value of a brand. It does not matter if you have protected a slogan, a brand, a color, the shape of a product or even a smell, we must check it and be aware of the events that happen around us. All we can say is that trademark owners have a duty to monitor their brand year round and 24 hours a day so that they can protect their brand from any kind of unexpected event.

For businesses, companies and companies, the value of brands that are not policed ​​is always in danger and can cause the total loss of all brand rights.

No matter if you are a brand monitoring service provider or a brand owner, there are three important duties that we do when considering a brand watch and they are as follows:

• Surveillance of unauthorized uses of a brand

• Surveillance of uses of confusingly similar marks

• Monitoring of trademark uses by approved trademark licenses

So how should companies effectively track brands? Here are some steps:

Determine the Territory: Trademark rights are territorial and are generally granted from one country to another, therefore, the first step is to know the territory to carry out a brand monitoring, that is, which territory is going to be monitored for a particular brand. This will depend on where your own rights are valid now and what your expansion plans are. The Trademarks and Trade Names that we register at the federal level are effective nationally, while unregistered common law rights are effective in the geographic area of ​​their origin. Trademark rights are also granted on a country-by-country basis, so rights in the United States have no effect outside the United States.

Develop a proactive system to learn from misuse: The second step in an overall trademark monitoring process will be to develop a proactive system to learn from misuse. Trademark issues are often easier to resolve the earlier they appear, so staying on top of events regularly is key to success in this domain. Some of the important action plans that can be carried out by brand monitoring service providers are:

• Search the USPTO Online Database of Federal Trademark Applications and Registrations

• Periodically search the web for abuse

• Setting up a Google alert for your trademark

• Follow-up of customer complaints.

• Get help from a professional trademark monitoring service provider

• Configuring various third-party online trademark theft reporting processes

Evaluate the substance: The third step in this process is knowing the substance of the misuse. Once we verify the misuse, we can move forward with the necessary steps to move forward. Is this the only step where we get to know if the third party used goods and/or services like ours? Will the territory (geographical location) used be an issue and/or if the use has no legal interest because it is a permitted fair use?

Decide actions: There are many measures that we generally take after checking for misuse. For example, sending a cease and desist letter to the violator could be the first step in case one of the parties violates your right. If there is a federal application pending, you can oppose the application at the USPTO. For web uses, the domain name registrar may attempt to remove inappropriate or infringing content even if the owner or user refuses to do so. Trademark abuse in a domain name can often be resolved through simplified UDRP procedures.

Assert your rights:

This is the last and final step in the overall trademark monitoring process where the plaintiff files a lawsuit to enforce the rights.

Resume: In short, we can say that brand monitoring is an ongoing and ongoing process and companies need to do it throughout the year to prevent their brand from being misused.