Although significantly underutilized by Italian companies, trademarks are a very interesting marketing tool.
The trademark serves to register, protect, and defend intellectual property.
In this case, it is primarily linked to a sign that one wishes to prevent competitors from using and reproducing.
In Italy, there are approximately 4.5 million companies, and every year fewer than 40,000 registrations are made—equivalent to less than 1% of the business population. These figures, unfortunately, reveal a lack of attention (consider that in 2016, registration applications in China reached 3.69 million) by the average entrepreneur toward this topic which, conversely, hides enormous potential.
TRADEMARK REGISTRATION IS NOT JUST FOR LARGE CORPORATIONS; EVEN (AND ESPECIALLY) SMEs SHOULD EXPLOIT THIS POWERFUL MARKETING OPPORTUNITY.
The error we are often led to commit is thinking that trademark registration is an activity reserved for large companies with massive capital to invest.
What is overlooked, however, is that trademark registration is a marketing concept within everyone's reach, especially for the small entrepreneur who, through the trademark, wants to highlight the quality of their product to the consumer, offering the market something unique and different from what others offer.
LACK OF STRATEGIC VISION
What is often lacking in Italy is that strategic marketing activity which forms the basis of a commercial development strategy. For 90% of the clients we assist, we initiate a trademark registration procedure only because it is the obvious consequence of a process that begins with the identification and creation of a unique and differentiating system. One forgets that behind this choice, there should be the idea of a commercial strategy.
It must always be kept in mind that: to sell, and to sell well, means being chosen by the market.
To be chosen by the market, before thinking about deploying a team of "aggressive" salespeople (the primary focus of the Italian entrepreneur), it is necessary to start with marketing. This ensures the company's sales area has suitable weapons to face daily challenges—challenges that are not won through the magic and hypnotism of those in sales, but thanks to content and arguments emerging from that corporate office called MARKETING.
And trademarks, in this sense, move precisely in that direction.
Whatever the size of the company, whatever the business in which it operates, creating something unique and different compared to what the competition offers must be the company’s first MUST.
THE PROBLEM OF CONFUSION BETWEEN TRADEMARK AND PATENT
Another problem we often encounter is that the entrepreneur does not think of the trademark as a marketing lever, partly because they confuse the trademark with the patent.
They think the trademark identifies the "discovery" of an innovative production process. They think of a "recipe" they do not have. The truth is, they are unaware of the marketing opportunity hidden behind the use of a trademark.
THE REGISTERED TRADEMARK IS A CORPORATE ASSET THAT CAN BE ENTERED INTO THE ASSETS OF A COMPANY’S BALANCE SHEET.
Another concept linked to marketing is that through a registered trademark, it is possible to activate very interesting paths for tax planning purposes as well (which translates into paying fewer taxes!). This is an interesting opportunity, which we will not address now, but which highlights the economic importance of the operation.
CONCLUSION
The 40 years of experience in the field of intellectual property of Studio Saglietti Bianco lead us to believe that the time has come to use trademarks as tools and levers for commercial development. Compared to the rest of the world, we are moving slowly, but we have all the tools at hand to recover lost ground.
Our consultants are available to our Clients and anyone interested to provide all information and evaluate the recommended actions for the most effective protection of the company name or trademark rights.