Trademark your board game name

A trademark prevents others from using a "confusingly similar" name for their game.

For example, a trademark for MONOPOLY should prevent others from using the names Mono‐polis (phonetically similar, but meaning "one city"), Cartel (conceptually similar) and Ukuzithoba (Zulu translation).

Most of the popular board games have trademark registered:

• the board game name and logo;
• the game board layout;
• the playing card layout;
• the shape of the playing pieces; and
• the shape of the figurines.

The more distinctive your make your board game elements, the stronger your trademarks will be.

Get a Trademark Pending Number in 5 steps

1. Enter the applicant's name and address
2. Enter your mark (e.g. CLUEDO)
3. Enter the goods / service class (e.g. class 28 board game; class 9 electronic game)
4. Sign a Power of Attorney
5. Pay US$99

Start now

Your Trademark Pending Number application will be filed with an official Trademarks Office in a country that is a signatory to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.

Within a business day of filing, we will send you a Trademark Pending Number … guaranteed. This official Trademark Pending Number is effective in 177 countries (including the EU, US, Russia, China, India, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, …)

Trademark classes

Definitely file your Trademark Pending Number in class 28 (games). Also consider filing trademarks in:

• Class 9 ‐ software (covering electronic versions of the game)
• Class 16 ‐ printed material
• Class 41 ‐ education and entertainment services

Example: TRIVIAL PURSUIT

Mark	Classes
TRIVIAL PURSUIT (word mark)	9 (software), 16 (printed material), 25 (clothing), 28 (games), 41 (education, entertainment)
	9, 16, 25, 28, 41
	28
	28
	28
	28
	28

What next?

In 6 months' time you will have a rough idea of your primary markets. File corresponding trademark registrations in these countries, claiming the date of your Trademark Pending Number. In a few years, should a new country "open up" to you, you can always file a trademark there, as long as no‐one has in the interim filed a confusingly similar mark in similar classes.

In the country your Trademark Pending Number was filed, we can assist you to prosecute your trademark application to grant. This could be your first registered trademark.