Clothing and textiles need protection from copycats

Most importantly, said Hoang Ve Dung, deputy general director of VINATEX, they don’t understand what intellectual property rights are nor the importance of registering their brands to obtain legal protection from copycats.

Business Legal Name

The legal name of a business is the name given in its articles of incorporation or other organizing documents. A legal name should be used when communicating with the government or other businesses. For example, the business’ legal name should be used when filing tax returns, buying property, on bank accounts or when writing checks.

Business Trade Name

A trade name is generally considered the name a business uses for advertising and sales purposes that is different from the legal name in its articles of incorporation or other organizing documents.

A trade name is most commonly referred to as a ‘fictitious name’ or a ‘doing business as’ (DBA). A good example of a trade name was the use of the name Apple by Apple Computer prior to the company’s name change a few years ago.

That’s when Apple Computer dropped ‘Computer’ from its legal name and just became Apple— signifying it was more than just a computer vendor.  So prior to the change Apple Computer was the legal name and Apple was the trade or fictitious name used by the company.

It is important to note that a trade name is NOT, in and of itself, a form of intellectual property, but is simply a fictitious name that allows a company to do business under a name other than its legal name at minimal cost.

It shortcuts the process of creating a whole new business entity by a company already legally organized and allows the new company to accept payments, advertise, and otherwise present itself under that name.

It is advisable to seek the advice of counsel in the country a domestic company is doing business because, in general, both the legal name and trade name of a business are required on many legal documents such as contracts, tax returns, bank accounts and checks.

Trademark

A trademark is any word, phrase, design, or symbol that a business uses to distinguish its goods and services from another’s and to indicate the source of the goods. In short, a trademark is a brand name.

A trademark can be any combination of the above and can even be a slogan.

Trademarks that have been registered with an official government body in the US or the UK, for example, should have the registered trademark symbol ® or ™ after the mark on the product, its packaging, or when used in association with the service.

Trade Name Used as a Trademark

When a business is using its trade name to identify its products or services, then the name is functioning as a trademark, and trademark law must be considered. A domestic company has a legal right to use a name as a trademark only to the extent that it does not infringe upon other existing trademarks.

It is not necessary to register a trademark; however, federal registration in such countries as the US or UK has several advantages including notice to the public of the registrant's claim of ownership of the mark and the exclusive right to use the mark on, or in connection with, the goods or services set forth in the registration.

For example, the trade name ‘Apple’ was a federally registered trademark of the Apple Computer company. So technically speaking after the company changed its name as previously referenced, the business legal name, business trade name, trademark name, brand name and registered trademark name became one and are now all the same.

Understanding the aforementioned terms can be confusing, however, each of these terms does have a different meaning and must be understood by any domestic business considering doing business overseas.

Most importantly, only the registered trademark name is considered intellectual property and can be treated as an asset or physical property of the company for which the domestic company has ownership rights.

Although a trade name may sometimes also be a trademark (unregistered), a trade name is not, in and of itself, a form of intellectual property and is not exclusively the property of the domestic company.

Preventing Identity Theft

The importance of registering brand names and obtaining trademarks cannot be understated, said VINATEX Deputy General Director Dung, to protect the domestic company’s investment in their brand(s).

The trademark affords the company intellectual property rights, which is tantamount to sole ownership of them and it prevents identity theft by other businesses and prevents others from abusing their brand.

Without intellectual property rights, local companies might find themselves spending millions of dollars to develop a brand and lose all of their investment (or find out far too late that the brand cannot be trademarked).

It is a very common practice in many markets around the globe for businesses to copy brands that have not obtained trademark protection and there needs to be a sustained effort to get all clothing and textile brands trademarked to protect them from copycats, said Mr Dung.