Trademark Now – or Turmoil Later

While running your business, you have a million things to think about.  Customers, employees, taxes, transactions – the list is endless.  But what about protecting the company’s very identity, goodwill, and brand?  A company’s name and logo are vital to success from a marketing standpoint, and as such you should be doing everything possible to protect them.  A great place to start is by making a promise to yourself and your business that this year all of your identifiers will be properly trademarked.

Trademarking is actually a fairly simple process, and we are here to help.  The first step to registering your trademark is making sure that no one else already owns it. Using the TESS (hyperlink site) page on the US Patent and Trademark Office you can search both words and designs and be sure no one has an identical or strikingly similar business mark for the same category of goods and services offered by your company.   If you don’t own your mark, then anyone can use it and ride on your goodwill, or even damage it.

After determining your brand’s legal standing, a registration must be submitted with all of the details of your mark and specific limits on how you will use it. Ideally, the USPTO should respond to you with approval within 6 months of filing your application.  But what if you find that your mark – or a similar one – is already being used?  Even if you have been using it for a longer period of time, your registration will likely be contested.  These are tough waters to navigate, but do not fret, we are quite familiar with them. If you find yourself in this situation, give us a call immediately and we will see how we can help you to move forward in getting your business protected.

Registering your mark is not really optional any longer.  Confusingly similar or counterfeit websites, email addresses, and other indicia are rampant.  Surely if you’ve owned “Great Shipping” for 20 years and gained a reputation in your industry, a new business called “Ship Great” can’t open its doors down the road from you in the same exact field? Though that may seem to be common sense, it is not the law. Unfortunately, unless copyrighted or trademarked, a name that is clearly playing off another brand cannot be challenged legally – no matter how similar.  State trademarking, by the way, is generally useless in our opinion.   Only a Federally recognized mark has substantial business protection value.

Be proactive and give us a call today to see how we can help you keep your business, its goodwill, and its identity, safe and uniquely tied to you alone.