Ask HN: Is a SaaS provider expected to have a trademark in every country?

I'm by far not well versed enough i n legal matters to give a conclusive answer on this, but as I understand it, the trademark thing mostly becomes an issue when you want to advertise locally and especially for enterprise SaaS where you pretty much need a sales team on the ground and maybe even a local business entity for the other party to sign with.

I don't think that it is very likely that a country will try to block its citizens from subscribing on some website. At least I have never heard it being done over trademark issues.

There is no world wide trademark. There are also no world wide patents

You should consult with a trademark lawyer (I'm not a lawyer), but my understanding from lawyers who've trademarked for me is that you must have used (or will use via the intention to use filing) the mark in commerce.

If you have not, then the mark is not active. Because Transistor fm has used their mark in commerce, then they will hold rights to it already even if they have not officially trademarked (not sure if this is so). So a useful way to handle this is to quickly make your first sale if you're trademarking something new (and issue an invoice).

They can also contest your mark during the trademarking process.

The above is the way it works in the US; not sure about other countries.

I would say just register in US and EU, if necessary buy the country-specific domain name extension and redirect to your main. like, my-saas-service.au to my-saas-service.com.

Obtaining trademarks in every country is not worth efforts unless you are at really high growth.

Here's a practical argument for why you might need a lawyer to answer this question: the question gives rise to many, many legal issues. Some examples follow; no particular order.

(1) Where does country/jurisdiction X consider the Internet to be for the purposes of defining jurisdiction? Is it where the misled customers are? Is it where the infringer's servers are? What about Google? How will this affect your ability to enforce your TM rights, registered or otherwise?

(2) How does one acquire TM rights in country/jurisdiction X?

(3) What are the requirements of TM registration in country/jurisdiction X? Does it require "use"? What does "use" mean in country/jurisdiction X, including in light of (1) above? How long can you delay commencing "use" in X (or pause use in X) without losing your application/registration? How does X deal with Madrid Protocol filings? What priority, if any, will securing a registration give you over pre-existing but unregistered users of the same or a similar TM in X, and does this situation evolve over time? What is the practical cost of securing and maintaining a registration in country/jurisdiction X? Is your TM "confusing" with some other not-identical TM already used and/or registered in X? What does it mean for one TM to be "confusing" with another in X? Is your TM unregistrable in X? What does it mean to be unregistrable in X?

(4) What are the courts of country/jurisdiction X willing to do to enforce rights arising from a TM registration in X? If a court of X can't stop the infringer directly, would it consider enjoining a third party such as Google to at least stymy the infringer (e.g. by making the infringer unsearchable using Google)? What scope of protection are the courts of X willing to extend to your TM? Will the courts of X let other persons get away with minor variants? Will the courts of X let other persons get away with using the TM on unrelated goods or services? How unrelated? Will the courts of X recognize an order of a court of country/jurisdiction Y?