Trade Marks Paul Newman - Black Pages
Paul Newman - Black Pages: By far the biggest challenge for me as an indigenous business person is being seen seriously as a black business man.
Alison Page: One of the challenges running your business is knowing how to stand out from the competition. Now you can build your corporate identity through advertising a brochure and a website but what's stopping someone from stealing your brand? Registering your Trade mark is a sensible way to protect your IP.
Paul Newman is a business owner who's done just that. His aboriginal enterprise "Black Pages" provides access to over 3000 businesses and community organisations in Australia.
Paul Newman - Black Pages: Black pages provides a culture appropriate business model where indigenous businesses and community enterprises feel comfortable with doing business, often in a culturally appropriate way. The role that the Black Pages brand plays is that it is recognised as an indigenous business. We decided to register the Black Pages Trade mark after following allot of good business practices and principles. It made good business to be able to protect our brand. The Trade mark also gives us visibility within the mainstream business sector. It wasn’t too much of a task getting the Trade mark registered. We were very fortunate that professional trade mark legal people who we engaged to help us with that process knew what they were doing. What I would recommend to other indigenous businesses is that they, if they have a business product, a business model, it would be very worth while spending some time to talk to professionals around the issue of intellectual property. Registering the Black Pages Trade mark does allot for the Black Pages business. It gives us some pride, it tells a story to have some protection around our brand. It makes us look like a very professional business.
Alison Page: More success for your business, more valuable your brand can become, so don't risk it, protect your hard work by registering your Trade mark. For more information on trade marks contact IP Australia, your business advisor or a Trade mark attorney.
Last Updated: 11/12/2012
