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TRADEMARKS  
 
8. What to register ?
 
You must register the symbol or sign as you intend it to be used - i.e. you must register the part of the sign that needs to be protected as you intend to use it.
Since the mark is essentially there to be used, you should register the symbol or sign that will accompany the mark.
Different types of symbols can be registered. However, only those elements which are considered distinctive in the country of registration can be protected. It is therefore well-advised to eliminate changeable features without any distinctiveness, in particular descriptive elements such as the quantity, composition, origin, price, address of the applicant, instructions for use, etc.
1. Name (or number) in printed characters
 
The protection covers the denomination itself.
Examples:

This type of registration does not protect the particular visual presentation that you may eventually use.
2. A mark comprising a graphic element registered in black and white
> Name written in stylised lettering:
In this case, the protection also covers the style in which the mark was registered. The inconvenience of this type of registration is the need to re-file whenever there is a significant change in the presentation. In fact, it is necessary to ensure that the mark, as it is used, corresponds effectively with the style in which it was registered.
Examples:
> Name incorporated into a graphical presentation.
The conferred protection is as above.
As, for example, the FINA® mark here below (filed in black & white).
> A purely figurative mark two or three dimensional
(in the shape of the product or its packaging).

Examples:
The protection is inevitably limited to the graphics.
3. Colour marks
The different types of marks under point 2 above can be registered in one or more colours if the colours are characteristic of the mark. Thus, FINA® has been registered in colour combinations blue, white, red and black. In exceptional cases, a colour or combination of colours in themselves can validly constitute a distinctive sign; the yellow-orange colour for KODAK® products is an example.
4. Comments
> To ensure optimum protection, normally you should file the mark in its different forms: name in printed letters and graphic presentation in colour.
> For figurative marks (in black and white or colour), it is necessary to keep an eye out that over the years, the mark used corresponds to the one originally registered. Each new change in graphics means a new registration.
> Certain marks may be refused because of their descriptive character. They may however be accepted and indirectly protected if they are accompanied by a striking figurative element.


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