Selling your brand: 6 practical tips

There are all sorts of reasons to sell your brand: selling a branch of activity, a complete company, an unexploited brand...

But not all brands are saleable. In any case, not all of them will find a buyer. Here are a few tips to optimize the chances of selling your brand.

No. 1: Filing a "neutral" mark

The chances of resale are determined as soon as the trademark is registered. Indeed, the choice of the trademark as such, and of the form of the application, will have a fundamental impact on the future.

The choice of brand name

The ideal is to choose a totally arbitrary brand, which will be more easily sold because it is detachable from its owner.

Conversely, if you choose to register your family name as a trademark, you impose a double handicap on yourself. First of all, the trademark will possibly, in the minds of consumers, always be linked to your person, even once it has been assigned. There will therefore probably be fewer potential buyers. On the other hand, if you resell it, you will be "depositing" your family name, which may be detrimental to you personally. The trademark consisting of your family name should therefore be avoided at all costs. Especially if you wish to resell it later.

Finally, choosing a name that is too descriptive of the field of activity may also reduce its chances of selling its brand. It will not benefit from a strong image with the public . There are exceptions, such as ventesprivées.com. However, the owners of these well-known trademarks have paid out huge sums of money in communication.

The choice of the form of the deposit

A trademark can be registered in verbal, semi-figurative or figurative form (see our guide on this subject). This is at the discretion of the depositor.

However, it must be borne in mind that it must always be operated in the form of the repository, or in a very slightly modified form.

However, if the trademark is registered with a logo (semi-figurative or figurative trademark), the potential buyer will be obliged to use this logo: if he wishes to use another one, then the purchase of the trademark will not be of interest to him. Indeed, old trademarks often have logos that are a little outdated. It is quite rare to keep the same logo for more than 10 years.

We therefore strongly advise you to favour a word trademark application (i.e. consisting of letters and/or numbers without any graphic elements). This is the best strategic choice to sell your trademark to an owner who will be able to use it in the graphic form of his choice.

No. 2: Properly drafting the list of goods and services covered by the mark

A trademark is registered for specific products and/or services. It can therefore only be sold to purchasers who are interested in the name AND the activity protected by that name.

As such, it is important to draft a wording (list of goods and services) that is exploitable by a potential buyer. However, the wording can be freely worded, while respecting the Nice Classificationand a certain method of drafting.

Too precise a wording will be of less interest to buyers because the protected field of activity will be too narrow. For example, a trademark registered in class 25 only for bathing suits, whereas this class includes all types of clothing.

Conversely, wording that is too vague can be worrisome to a potential buyer. He may not be certain of finding his business there, and may not be sure that he will be protected. For example, a trademark is registered in class 35 for business organization consulting services. The potential buyer is specialized in marketing. Does marketing fall into this general category? Nothing is less certain...

Therefore, the wording should be broad enough to maximize the chances of resale. But it must be narrow enough to limit the risk of third party action. Indeed, the broader the wording, the greater the chances of litigation.

No. 3: Conducting pre-filing searches with a view to selling one's mark later on

Before registering your trademark, it is always preferable to conduct background checks. This makes it possible to ascertain the legal environment of one's project and to estimate the risks of conflict.

However, one of the major interests in buying back a brand is, in particular, the buyback of its seniority. The older a trademark is, the less likely it is to be attacked by an owner of prior rights. Providing the research report of the time showing that there is no real risk of conflict increases the value of the trademark.

No. 4: Be up to date with registrations

All kinds of events can take place during the life of the brand. For example, a change of address or name of the owner, an assignment, a licence, a pledge... All these changes must be subject to a compulsory registration.an entry in the National Trademark Register in order to be enforceable against third parties.

However, when the trademark is transferred, it is necessary to be up to date with the previous registrations, in order to respect what is known as the "chain of rights". If, for example, the trademark had been the subject of a previous assignment that had not been registered, the purchaser will have to make 2 registrations (the previous assignment and the current assignment), which will double the costs. Similarly, if a licence has been granted and the contract has ended, the cancellation of the licence must be rectified by registering the cancellation of the licence.

In short, the Trademarks Register contains the "CV" of each trademark, which must be kept up to date at all times so that purchasers can know the exact status of the right they wish to purchase.

No. 5: Conduct surveillance to better sell your trademark

Monitor a brand after it has been filed prevents later trademarks from "parasiticising" the protection. Indeed, since the INPI does not check the availability of the trademarks submitted to it, anyone can file a trademark that infringes a prior right. It is up to the owner to keep an active watch to defend himself in due time (in particular during the opposition period).

However, a mark is considered diluted if it is embedded in a mass of identical or similar posterior marks. This happens when the proprietor has allowed these marks to settle without reacting. The trademark will have less value than a trademark regularly defended by its owner in order to protect his monopoly.

No. 6: Selling your brand with the corresponding domain names

It is not uncommon nowadays for a person to give up his trademark project because the domain name (often in .com) is not available. Indeed, visibility on the Internet has become a fundamental component of business development. Therefore, offering the brand and the domain name for sale together will reassure a potential buyer. It will also increase the value of the lot. We therefore recommend that you reserve the domain name corresponding to your trademark after the registration, with a specialized registrar.

If you wish to register a safe and valuable trademark in the long term, please do not hesitate to contact our lawyers !