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The Trademark Law of South Africa requires that the applicant completes the application form correctly and select the most appropriate class in which to register the trademark.
Our trademark law provides for logos, phrases, keywords or a combination of all to be used to uniquely identify the products or services of a company amongst the thousands of other brands.
Under South African Trademark Law, you cannot simply change a few characters in a logo and then register it as a trademark. If it resembles another mark in any way the mark will not be valid for registration. If a word sounds alike, it may also cause confusion with the consumers and as such will be rejected. It is important that the mark will pass the test of confusion.
When selecting a name, any generic terms must be scraped. A generic term is for instance, water or lemon. It is a word used to describe something used often. As such the word tree cannot form part of the trademark as the word tree cannot receive protection.
With the above in mind you should select a name that will identify your brand and drop the generic term from the mark. If the name is for instance, Banji Shirts, you will be limited to usage of the mark to shirts. If the mark says only Banji it can be used with all of your products such as shirts, pants, and more.
Descriptive terms cannot be used as trademarks and as such surnames cannot be trademarks. There are however, exceptions to this rule.
To learn more about trademark registration and how to proceed under the South African Trademark Law, contact us at Smit & Van Wyk today.
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