Great brand names get copied, and this is why Monitoring Trademark Usage is so important.

You see, over time, your mark can be squeezed through something called “Dilution.”  So, describing this over time, let’s go back to the year, the day that you get your Trademark Registration.  It’s kind of this Blue Ocean time.  There are no competitors out there copying your mark. But as your brand gains notoriety and fame, all of a sudden, competitors will start popping up.

So, you know, I drew this (this is arbitrary of course) but between years and, competitors are starting to kind of put a squeeze on the use of your name.  And then if you don’t monitor your mark, so you can tell them to stop using your mark, then they can just kind of eat it away just, you know, kind of like the “Pac-Man Ghost” right?  Just squeeze it smaller and smaller. If you don’t think this can happen to you, well it’s happened to some pretty famous brands in the past.  It almost happened to Kleenex recently, but it has happened to –

Are you ready for this? Refrigerator, Roller Skates, Escalator, Aspirin, Zipper and Kerosene.  At one time, those were all Registered Trademarks.  So, don’t let that happen to you, get on a Monitoring Program.  You’ll want to monitor of course the internet, but other sources of use of your registered name and logo. And that way, you won’t get diluted, “squeezed out.”