iceland v iceland trademark battle

<p>You may have heard of the trademark battle going on between the country Iceland – famous for is beauty, gender equality and happiness levels  and national supermarket Iceland – famous for its frozen goods and value for money food.</p> <p>Apparently, the country Iceland has had enough of the Iceland supermarket trading under the name of the country and now intends to take legal action. The Icelandic tourism industry has said that when trying to trademark goods, it has overlapped with the already existing Iceland supermarket goods.</p> <p>What’s more, they also claim that Iceland supermarket is gaining from positive media coverage following Iceland’s success at European championships.</p> <p>This legal battle is ongoing but proves a very strong point about trademarking, and its advantages.</p> <p>Here is a list of reasons you should trademark your business:</p> <p>Trademarks don’t necessarily need to be words; you can have trademarked your entire brand identity. A clear cut example of this is a brand like Nike or Apple. Their image logos are essentially their brand and are recognisable worldwide – whether one speaks English or Japanese, the Nike tick will always be recognised – making it a good way to communicate.</p> <p>Trademarked companies are more likely to be found because of their trademarks, and this makes it easy to draw in more customers – and to fight off potential customers. When seeing your trademark your customers know who you are and what your success and reputation is.</p> <p>Yes, that’s correct – as a brand grows it also becomes more valuable and if you were to ever sell it off the price of that trademarking will prove lucrative and investment worthy</p> <p>Lots of business don’t register their name and can run into huge problems as they grow. If you don’t trademark your business and only realise much later on that name is trademarked it can mean that you have to do a re-brand.</p> <p>For a business that is just growing and trying to retain customers having a rebrand is so early on can be harsh. It makes your brand more obscure and less trustworthy for customers.</p> <p>What’s more, once you’re registered it means no one else can then take or use that name or brand. This can help hugely if your brand name is something popular and wanted by many.</p> <p>If you find you need any legal advice around trademarking or simply want to know more, don’t hesitate to call our team on <strong>0116 2999 199</strong> or alternatively you can email us at <strong>info@d-w-s.co.uk</strong></p>