We are starting a business and we would like to know if it is possible registering, besides the name of the company, also a phrase that forms it? Furthermore, for the products, could we patent the line names?

Undoubtedly, when starting a business, the names choice strategically represents the most important moment, and it is even more important having the guarantee of being the only one using them. With reference to the first question, during the last years there have been more and more phrases being registered, besides words, which identify a product or a service, this mainly in the field of new technologies. Therefore it is possible registering a phrase, but at the same time is advisable to proceed with two different applications and not inserting the name of the association in the same phrase registration, as by doing so the two signs remain tied to each other. It follows that, should you one day get tired of using the slogan linked to the name and continue using only either one or the other, the protection on the mark will be very highly reduced. The best thing to do is registering the name of the company and, separately, the slogan, so that the two can be independent one from the other. Regarding the second question, it s not a matter of “patenting” the line names, but still to register them as marks of the business. By following the same procedure required to protect the company name and the slogan, it is also possible registering all the names of the various lines of clothing and, later on or if we find it convenient, registering the names of each product too. The essential thing is to indicate precisely the manner in which you intend using a certain name, by describing for which products or services it will be used, so to differentiate all the registrations one from the other. A thing to be done first, though, is to do a search of novelty to ensure that others have not already registered those names.