Trademarks as business weapons for SMEs
Romanian small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) are in the process of becoming familiar with trademark legislation and the importance of registering trademarks for identifying goods and services. At some levels the protection of trademarks is currently not even taken into consideration when starting a business. These attitudes are not grounded in financial reasons but rather in the fact that the registration of trademarks is optional.
In order to act as a legal entity, the registration of a trade name is compulsory, and if you want to promote or put your business online purchasing a domain name is a must, but there is no obligation for firms to invest time and money in protecting their trademarks.
Most of them do not even acknowledge the role of a trademark on the market because they are using their trade names and domain names to identify their goods and especially their services. Some of these firms receive a harsh education when they are forced by their competitors to confront trademark issues.
Such was the case of a small Romanian company, SC Microbest Boss Trading SRL, which is active in the distribution and commercialisation of professional surveillance systems and devices, wires, microvideo cameras, microphones, digital recording systems and all kind of devices to be used in surveillance and espionage. The goods are used by the police, security companies and detectives but are also commonly used by journalists during research for articles or coverage in the entertainment industry in order to fi nd out more information about celebrities.
