The danger of not having registered your trademark: what happens, what it costs and how to avoid it
Regicenter Team
Published on Sep 17, 2026
Updated on Oct 27, 2026
2 min read
New trademarks appear at INPI every day. Some may be close enough to yours to confuse your customers. Whoever registered first has the right to demand that you stop using your own name.
The four risks of growing without a registration
Losing the name to a competitor who registered first. Being served a notice for misuse and having to answer in court. Not being able to franchise, because Law 13,966/2019 requires a registered trademark. Being left out of marketplaces such as Amazon and Mercado Livre, which ask for the registration to open a brand store.
What it costs to lose a trademark
Besides causing stress, hurting the company’s image and driving customers away, losing a trademark is also expensive. Costs are estimated at 10 to 100 times what the registration would have cost: logo, business cards, website, uniforms, signage, changes to the articles of association.
Simple rule
Registering is not expensive. Starting over from scratch is.
What the free search reveals
The search compares the name with the INPI database in the classes of your field and returns one of three results: clear path, risk of conflict or unavailable. In the last two cases, the unit in your region explains the options before any filing.