Do I have to watch my trademark worldwide?

Just like you might not need to register your trademark everywhere around the world, you might not need to perform trademark watching globally either (except on places like social media, which you'd monitor as a whole). Remember, monitoring is only part of protecting your brand; you also need to be able to enforce your rights.

When deciding which countries to include, think about where you do business and have built up a good customer reputation. Then, think about whether you can challenge new trademark applications in those countries. For example, in the US, you might be able to oppose newer marks if you've been in the market longer, even if you don't have a US trademark. But in many countries, you'd need a registered trademark to raise an opposition.

So, the countries you'll monitor will likely be the same as the ones where you have trademarks, but not necessarily.

Another thing to keep in mind is the dual system of protection in the EU. If you have a trademark in Germany, for instance, you'll want to watch both the German IP office and the EUIPO since both German and EU trademarks could infringe upon yours.

However, even after all these considerations, we should make a point related to the budget. If you're thinking about subscribing to a trademark monitoring service and are choosing from your provider's packages, be sure to look at whether global coverage isn't cheaper than getting separate packages for each country.