Register a Trademark

GETTING YOUR START-UP off the ground will be one of the hardest things you ever do. All the lingo about being nimble, agile and lean certainly holds water, but when executed too casually, could scupper your venture by creating unintended legal loopholes that come back to bite you many months, or years later. To equip your start-up for the unforgiving world of business, let’s explore five common legal mistakes start-ups tend to make when launching their business. NAIL DOWN YOUR FOUNDING DOCUMENTS As early as possible, you need to secure all founding documents and agreements to govern the relationship between the company and its shareholders and directors. The most important of these documents are the Shareholders Agreement and Memorandum of Incorporation. When your start-up is making the big moola — which we all hope it does — issues between shareholders become very real. Ensuring that you have the right mechanisms in place to solve shareholder or director issues will gi...

GENERALLY SPEAKING trademarks serve to protect the exclusive use of your company name, slogan or logo. A significant number of business owners think that because they have registered a company and reserved a company name with the CIPC, their exclusive right to the name is ensured. The short answer is that this assumption is incorrect. Reserving a company name with the CIPC does not necessarily mean that you have the exclusive right to use that name. Trademark Registration Service : By registering your trademark, you obtain the exclusive rights to use your name, slogan or logo in your industry. This article seeks to provide you hard-working entrepreneurs and business owners with a better understanding of what a trademark is, why it is needed for your business, and some of the incredible, but not particularly well known, benefits of having a registered trademark. Reviewing a contract is a tricky business, not entirely different from asking a builder...