Trade Mark vs. Company Name

A trade mark and a business name serve different purposes and protect your business in different ways.

Trade marks are property, and they have value. And, because they are property, they can be licensed or assigned to others. Similar to owning a home, for example, a trade mark owner has the exclusive rights to permit the use of his/her trade mark by others.

A company or business name, however, is simply a name used to identify your business. It does not give you exclusive rights to that name. If another company uses your business name for its business, you don’t have any rights to stop it.

Registering your company or business name does not automatically protect your name as a trade mark. It also doesn’t guarantee that the name is registrable as a trade mark.