Who should own the trademark for a business

It may sound perfectly obvious but the party or entity which controls the quality of the goods of a particular brand should be owner of the associated trademark. The owner of a trademark can be an individual, a partnership, a corporation or possibly some other legal entity such as an estate. Sometimes, if there is a group of affiliated companies, a single corporate body, called a holding company, centralizes branding decisions and operations for the group, and it will own all of the marks used by the affiliated entities in business operations.

Usually, if a business is incorporated or within a corporate like structure, it is a preferred practice to have ownership vest with the company itself rather than with an individual such as an executive or operations officer. This is so for several reasons. Having the business own the mark gives the company the flexibility to license or assign the mark, it adds value to the company assets and may be used as additional security in financial transactions, and in the event of suspected infringement, it provides a legal basis for the company to enforce its rights.