Archives For Trademark Office

Trademark Roundup: Trademark Basics by Mighty Marks

March 31, 2015 — 1 Comment

We’ve been writing about trademark law for a full year now and we’ve covered a lot. To help you better understand the ins and outs of trademark law we want to roundup some of our most practical posts to help you find the information you need to know about how trademarks impact you and your business.

In this post, we’ll cover trademark basics.

Trademark 101

In our post What Everybody Ought to Know About Trademark Law we covered the three things you need to understand first.

First, the purpose of trademark law is to protect consumers. That is, trademarks serve as source identifiers for goods and services and help consumers find the specific goods or services they are seeking.

Second, that trademark rights stem from use in commerce. Technically, a registration is not even required, but a registration does have a number of significant benefits.

And third, a trademark protects names, slogans, and the like. Copyrights and Patents are different. Copyrights usually protect creative works, while Patents usually protect inventions.

Protecting your mark

In our post 5 Keys to Protect Your Trademark we discussed topics you need to learn to fully understand how you can protect your mark. Specifically: (a) that registration is not required, (b) common law protection only extends to the area in which you are using your mark and to your natural zone of expansion, (c) that rights are limited to the goods and services you sell, (d) that you cannot protect a descriptive mark, and (e) registration is strongly encouraged for maximum protection.

Trademark Applications

Speaking of registrations, we’ve covered a lot about how to obtain a registration.

To begin, we’ve covered Why Your Startup Should Apply for a Federal Trademark, and What To Do First: Company Name or Trademark. The benefits to registration include nationwide notice of your claim and ownership of your mark, and also a stronger ability to force infringers to cease their infringement. In the second post mentioned just above we provided guidance on how to reserve your business name with both your state and the USPTO.

What’s the USPTO? Glad you asked. We wrote all about the United States Patent and Trademark Office in this post: What is the USPTO and How Does it Affect My Business?

Trademark Infringement

And lastly, we’ve covered trademark infringement many times on this blog. The starting point to understanding infringement is this post, Justice Explained: Trademark Infringement & Defenses. In that post, we discussed how infringement is judged based on likelihood of consumer confusion. If consumers are confused, then infringement is likely to have occurred.

As we move into our second year of blogging about trademark law and trademark applications, we hope you continue to find our blog useful for your business.

If you have any topics you’d like covered, feel free to contact us to tell us what you’d like us to talk about!

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*This article is very general in nature and does not constitute legal advice. Readers with legal questions should consult with an attorney prior to making any legal decisions.

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What is the USPTO and How Does it Affect My Business?

November 11, 2014 — 1 Comment

We refer to the USPTO a lot on this blog. Technically it is known as the United Stated Patent and Trademark Office but it is often shortened to the Trademark Office or just USPTO. In this week’s post we want to provide more information on the office, what it does (and doesn’t do), and how it plays an important part for your business.

What is the USPTO and What Does it Do?

The USPTO is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of Commerce with more than 10,000 employees. Unlike most federal agencies, the USPTO is self-funded, paying for its expenses through the fees it collects on applications. Although the agency serves many functions including advising the President and other departments on intellectual property matters, its two primary functions are the registration of patents and trademarks.

What it Doesn’t Do

The USPTO will not give you legal advice on the ability to trademark your business name or logo and it also does not have any involvement with obtaining copyright protection for your creative works (the Copyright Office is tasked with managing our country’s copyright database and it is a part of the Library of Congress).

How It Affects Businesses

If you are an inventor or have some other patentable technology or business methods then the office may grant you the exclusive right to make use of and license those items for a limited time (normally 20 years). But as this is a trademark blog, we will focus on the trademark division of the USPTO.

The USPTO maintains a searchable database that contains trademark applications and registered marks (including denied applications and expired registrations). This database can be immensely valuable to your business because it can shed light on other businesses that might be using a name prior to your use. It can also offer information on what marks have been denied protection (for example, because they were descriptive) which can help you in picking the right, protectable, name for your business.

The USPTO also provides registration certificates for approved applications. If your application is approved and makes its way through the opposition process, you will obtain a certificate of registration that you can use to prevent trademark infringement. Although it doesn’t always work, providing proof of your registration with the USPTO will often help you reach a settlement with infringers prior to filing a lawsuit.

The USPTO also handles certain disputes such as opposition proceedings to oppose the registration of a mark. Once an application is approved, it is published for opposition for any individual or company to oppose registration. If you object to the registration, a trial-like proceeding is started during which you can submit your arguments.

Working With the USPTO

With respect to trademarks, anyone (including non-lawyers) can work directly with the USPTO to apply for a trademark and file various renewal documents. However, trademark law itself is often confusing, even to many lawyers!

For that reason, it is often a best practice to use the services of a trademark lawyer to assist you with your application. If you want to learn more about how we help clients obtain trademark registrations, read more about Mighty Marks® here.

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Image: uspto.gov
*This article is very general in nature and does not constitute legal advice. Readers with legal questions should consult with an attorney prior to making any legal decisions.

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