EP14: Don’t Lose What You’ve Built: The Power of Trademarks in SA

In this episode of The Rev Room, we dive into the world of trademarks with Nicole, unpacking why every entrepreneur in South Africa should consider trademark protection. From logos and slogans to unique product shapes, trademarks aren’t just legal red tape—they’re assets that protect your customer loyalty, brand identity, and long-term growth. If you’ve poured years into building your business, the last thing you want is to see someone else profit off your name. Nicole breaks down what can (and can’t) be trademarked, the process of registration through the CIPC, and the common mistakes business owners make when it comes to protecting their most valuable brand assets.

📌 Key Takeaways

1. Trademarks = Assets - They’re not just legal protections—they’re valuable business assets that can be bought, sold, or licensed.
2. Uniqueness Matters - Generic names like “Good Coffee” can’t be trademarked. The more distinct your brand element, the stronger the protection.
3. Renewal is Critical - Trademarks last 10 years. Forgetting to renew could mean losing years of brand equity overnight.

👉 Visit www.bizrev.co.za to learn more about our coaching, consulting, and full-service business support solutions.

📊 Want to see where your business really stands today? Take our free Biz Clarity Score™ — a 3-minute diagnostic to uncover gaps in financial visibility, tax strategy, advisory support, and business resilience. Get instant feedback and actionable next steps.

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Transcript

hi there and welcome to the Rev Room
and welcome to the Rev Room
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I'm Francois
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this room works best when it's a conversation
let's get into it
today we talking about trademarks
and the importance in South Africa
as to why you would do it and how you would do it
and with me here is Nicole
welcome Nicole thank you so much for having me again
great um
so Nicole trademarks um
how um
do they work how do we apply them
I mean you understand more about the trademarking
well I mean
that's a big topic to really cover in what
five sentences or less so
let's start with the fact that
a trademark is something that is actually
very important to a business
a lot of people hear the word trademark
and either clock out or they instantly
think oh
it's gonna be too expensive or it's not necessary
but it is actually quite a good asset to have in your
revenue of assets in your business
so if you hear the word trademark and you clock out
I suggest that you prick up your ears a little bit
and just take it in a bit
a trademark is something that actually gives your brand
a standing out point
and it protects it from anyone who wants to copy
or do a similar kind of trade
a similar type of brand
or a recognisability of your product
so it protects you legally from that happening
so so give us some examples about what
what you referring to as a trademark
I mean
give me some names or give me that we're that the uh
viewers are able to tangibly understand or see
so I mean
the first thing that comes to mind is
any kind of sports brand I mean
think of Nike or think of Adidas or anything like that
so Nike has the swish the the tick that is trademarked
it is a a symbol that when people see it
they instantly think Nike
no one else can actually use that swish
even if it's backwards forwards
upwards or downwards
everyone will always think of Nike first
and they are legally protected by that
other things are jingles like um
the McDonald's I'm loving it
everyone recognizes that
and also even something more uh
restaurant themed like spur
it's something that is
you recognize and you associate that
that brand with the name of the company
so the association would trigger something cognitively
that would encourage you to purchase
or to support the brand or to buy
exactly a garment
a Nike garment or have a
a meal at McDonald's etcetera
yes cool
and that's why it's important
obviously
to register a trademark to protect that because um
growing a company is difficult at the best of times
and when you've actually grown a successful brand
um it is stealable
if that's a word yes
it is I mean
think about a customer loyalty yes
you build this brand over so many years
and literally
can you picture if someone comes underneath you
uses your brand and steals the customers away from you
using your brand I mean
your entire business would either crumble
or you would have to change your branding completely
but for the rest of however long
people will still see that brand
and associate it with you
but you won't get that the customer loyalty anymore
yeah very serious
so in today's day
there's a lot of people who've created good brands
um not trademark them and um
if you trademark a brand
you can ask the existing company to refrain
from using that name and
or slogan because you've trademarked it
yeah you are protected legally
yeah so
I mean I
I would imagine that it's actually quite a very serious
thing to do it I think there are there
there are opportunists of course
you are looking for those opportunities
to leverage off and to um
exploit of course so we understand a bit more um
why we should trademark because it's in this
in our environment today it's more of a Protection
um so which is a legal Protection right
yes okay
so tell me now how does it really work
what does it mean if if we talk about trademarks
you said in the beginning um
you it people get afraid of it
the word
and tries to run away instead of embracing it and say
how do we make it happen yes
so the first thing to actually think of is
how do you actually make your trademark stand out
and be unique
we so starting from the first point of
do you want me to talk about
how the process actually goes
or do you wanna uh
discern what and isn't
what can be and what can't be trademarked
well let's do it
what can and can't be trademarked
and then we get into of course
so what can be trademarked is like I said
make sure that something is unique
make it something that is uh
that a customer can connect to you
it has to be something that is
not similar to what's out there
because otherwise someone may already
you may be infringing on someone else's trademark
firstly and secondly
it might be too
uh generalised so for example you can't exactly say uh
a trademark is good coffee it's it's too general
it's too it's not discernible to you okay
I think that's the best the best thing
and as well as the fact that you can't trademark
something that's already been trademarked
you can't
I mean that's already a red stamp right there okay
uh what you can is you can do a logo
you can do a slogan you can do shapes
colours you can even do the
the shape of your brand
like if you have a bottle that's really unique
you can trademark that
but what you can't trademark is something so generic
and general that people
it'll get lost in the the generality of it okay
so when you're thinking of trademarking think unique
think uh
recognisability of customers to my brand
and change it up a bit the more
the more different it is the more acceptable it is to
to be registered
so there must be a lot of different trademarks
on the register registry of South Africa so
so let's talk about the process of
how do you
actually apply for a registration of a trademark
and what is the process involved
knowing that there must be a lot of existing yeah
trademarks on the register
how does it work so previously the
so we go back to our good old C I P
C and everyone knows what
everyone at this point knows what
the C I P C is
if you've watched our previous podcasts previously
the CIPC used to
need people to post their trademark applications
we all know how that used to turn out
things used to get lost or anything like that
so it is post as in post with it to the post office
yes oh
that far back OK
yeah that far back
so
the CPC has actually incorporated an online system now
via their their e services network
you so step one is come up with your logo
whatever genuine uh unique thing
uh logo slogan symbol
anything that is identifiable to you
the next step is actually to uh
submit an application to the CIPC
which involves
the most important step is doing a search
whether there are any trademarks
that are either similar or exactly the same as yours
or involves
anything to do with what you are trademarking
so let's say bizrev is trademarking
you go onto the C I P C
and you actually do a search on
if there's any trademark that already uses Biz
Rev advisory anything to do with our brand
our logo
but inclusive in that is
you have to know what section or class your
your trademark is actually gonna fall into
now this this is a little bit more uh advanced
so when people actually need to apply
it is suggested that you go to a professional
who actually deep dives into a search
because they'll know what class
or what category the business will actually fall into
and that's because a business can actually do
multiple things I mean
there isn't one company out there that does
let's take Nike for example
they're not just a sports brand
they they do clothing
they do uh uh
equipment they do all kinds of things
and those all fall into different classes
and I can bet you that Nike
is trademarked in each one of those classes
so you have to know what class you're trademarking in
to be covered in every section
and they're 42 classes and if you don't know
where your company would actually fall in
you're gonna fall short
and someone's gonna take advantage of that
wow so you're saying Nike has 42 trademarks
well they should have 42 trademarks to agree
so that they're really protected right
well so it
I see I see where you
where you get confused yeah
so the 42 trademark class
oh
it's fine no
it's fine it is 12 o'clock
yoh it's already 12 o'clock
can you be exactly 12 o'clock
let it do its thing yeah
but actually it's anonymous for Friday
yeah let the weekend begin
everyone hears it and it's like yes
oh no
in Cape Town though it's the
the cannon yes
every every Friday at 12 uh
cause I used to go to Westfield
you just hear the cannon and everyone would be like up
cool yeah there we go
cool okay um
yeah so
I see where you come from
with thinking that it might be in all 42 classes
but I am gonna halt you there for a second
the 42 classes cover a huge range
so one of the ranges that uh
one of the classes that actually is inclusive of
for example is uh
the manufacturing of electronic equipment
so unless Nike has opened
a company that
has opened a factory
that actually makes electronic equipment
or any type of computers or something like that
and that's just an example
they won't be in every 42
every 42 classes OK
there are specific classes that they would fall into so
uh each class that they do is a separate application
that's the thing
so an example is that is that bakery
uh what was it you were talking
telling me the other day about that example
uh the bakery that it was two different trademarks
one did jams one did pastries but
oh yes
yes yes yes
yes yes yes
and they were still bakeries
but they had two different products actually
exactly two different glasses yeah
so they had
they had similar
uh logos yes
but the fact is
is that because they were in two different classes
there was no clashing yes okay
the problem would have come in if they both did coffee
because coffee
and they would have had two similar trademarks
for one product and one class
that's when it would have been a
problem a problem yeah okay
alright perfect
so Nicole what are the common mistakes
well so one of the first is firstly
not knowing what class your your trademark falls into
beyond that is not actually covering your trademark
in every class that you should be in
so a lot of people yes
you you do one trademark and you feel covered
but then your brand expands or it's
it includes a lot of other areas
that it could be trademarked in
and someone swoops in takes your brand
and you can't use your branding for that product
let's say so
the first most common one is not knowing what class
or classes that it could go into
a second one is the fact that people forget that
a trademark only lasts 10 years
it has to be renewed every 10 years
and
after going through this whole process of trademarking
can you picture at the end of 10 years
just you lose it
you have this entire customer loyalty base
and everything like that
and after 10 years you forget oops
and it's gone so that's
that's actually one of the bigger common
mistakes as well well
considering it takes
years to grow a successful business
in that point you just have you just reached success
and if you haven't re applied for a new
for the trademark or renewed it
you have a very big chance of losing
exactly so that's a huge mistake yeah
another one is
I know that asking for help
when it comes to legal side of things might
people think chachin a lot of money type thing
but it's better to actually get assistance in this area
than not yeah
and actually either screw it up from the beginning
or not actually
be able to carry it through to the finalization
because of how long it actually takes yeah
trademarks are not a short process it
the application itself is a lot easier
because it's online and everything like that
but the time period
in which the CIPC actually warns people
that it could take quite a period of time
and people either get frustrated
with having to wait that long
or they just completely forget that it's not just boom
some uh submitted application
it's gonna be accepted and registered
there's correspondence
as well as the fact that it's has to
there's a whole lot of other steps afterwards
before it can be registered
and it does take a while
so as anything you need to know more about
what's happening in the background than
you know what to expect
you know whatever
what kind of expectation you have or might not have
exactly hence employing a professional
mm hmm to make the application
exactly so actually getting the assistance is
is quite vital when when you're trademarking yeah
it's something that that important
with the right people
so
you suggesting that a trademark is actually an asset
that is has a value that can be sold and exploited
yeah it's not it's well
it's not really a suggestion
it's more like it is it is a an asset great
so when you
employ a professional to do a trademark for you
and you pay them a fee it's not really
an expense no
it actually it it weighs itself out eventually
because a trademark is Protection as well as an asset
amazing
so if what you heard is up your alley
and you're
thinking of navigating your way through trademark
give us a call
and we are able to assist in any way possible
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