Where To Register A Trademark In The Usa

Registering your brand name as a trademark is a uncomplicated three-footstep procedure.
You tin can register your brand proper name with the USPTO to protect your intellectual property from misuse.
It is not immediately necessary to secure a trademark, though it could benefit your make.
This commodity is for small business owners who are ready to register and trademark their brand name or wondering whether they should.

Registering a trademark for your company is a big step that helps y'all protect your brand identity from misuse or theft. Registering a trademark is a fairly straightforward process that yous can consummate in merely a few easy steps.

This guide volition walk you through each step needed to register and trademark your make name, and answer some frequently asked questions nearly registering your trademark.

What is a trademark?

According to the Usa Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a trademark is "a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of i party from those of the others."

Steps to trademark your company name

Trademarking your visitor'due south proper noun is non as simple every bit filing for an LLC and may take more time than you imagine.

i. Search

First, you need to search the federal database to ensure the name y'all desire to trademark isn't already protected as a trademark. You tin can practise this with the USPTO's Trademark Electronic Search Organization, also known as TESS. You should search not only for the name yous want, but for similar names. Your registration could be denied if the proper noun is too similar to a proper noun already registered inside the aforementioned class.

While this sounds straightforward, it can exist complex. Iguana Ice Cream and Iguana'due south Ice Cream might be too similar, for example. It tin also hateful that a registered trademark merely looks or sounds like your mark or that the meanings are similar.

ii. Apply

Once you lot've searched and cleared the name yous want to trademark, information technology's fourth dimension to prepare your trademark application. You tin file for a name already in commercial utilize or with an intent to use the proper name in the future.

The trademark application itself has 10 components:

The name and address of the applicant
The citizenship and legal entity of the applicant
A proper noun and address for future correspondence (this does non have to be the same as the name of the applicant)
A drawing of the desired mark (if you lot are only applying for the proper noun and don't desire to include a design element, yous simply blazon in the name)
A thorough clarification of the mark
A specific list of services or goods covered past the trademark awarding
The class of services or goods
An case of the marking in use equally well as the engagement it was first used
A dated signature from you or an authorized representative
The appropriate fee for the type and number of classes included on the application

iii. File

Once y'all accept completed the awarding, you have two filing options: TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard. The Plus pick is less expensive and more streamlined; it as well has a lower rate of rejections. However, if you demand to create a custom description of your services or goods that is not available in the preset list Plus provides, the risk associated with the Standard option may be more than beneficial for your situation.

Once you've submitted your application, you will receive a confirmation receipt from the USPTO and a serial number that you tin can apply to check the condition of your application in the Trademark Condition & Certificate Retrieval (TSDR) portal.

Key takeaway Fundamental takeaway: To register and trademark your make name, search the TESS database for like brand names, fill out the trademark awarding, and submit it to the USPTO for review.

Trademark FAQs

What is the departure between a trade name, trademark and service mark?

A trademark protects appurtenances, and a service mark does the same for services. Yet, the word "trademark" is sometimes used for both types of marks. Both are designed to limit the ability of competitors to mislead consumers with false claims of where a product or service originates.

A merchandise proper name is what is used in place of the official business concern proper noun. This is ofttimes indicated on paperwork with the phrase "doing business as" (DBA). It is used when the business name is considered too lengthy or when the desired name was too close to one that already had a trademark or service mark. (Notation that a trade proper noun does not indicate the legally responsible entity behind the service or production.)

Should you trademark your visitor proper noun?

It isn't necessary to register your mark to receive protectable rights. In the United States, yous are granted "common-police force rights" to a mark simply by using it equally function of your business concern. This means that you could begin using it and enforce your ownership of information technology through documentation of existence the first to use it commercially. Even so, there are limitations on your rights with a mutual-law trademark.

Registering for a federal trademark has a number of advantages. Most chiefly, information technology gives yous legal buying of the marking and the sectional rights to use it anywhere in the nation as it relates to the goods or services you listed during registration. Common-law rights are express to the immediate geographic expanse in which y'all are operating, and registering the proper name with your state only protects your rights within the borders of that state.

When you annals your mark with the USPTO, there volition be a public notice stating your ownership, and it will be listed in the online database. With a federally registered trademark, you as well have the option to register your trademark with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to go along foreign goods from being imported with the same name. You'll as well exist able to utilize the federal symbol ® instead of the less enforceable ™ mark.

The name of your company is the main style you present it to the earth. Imagine someone else using your company's name to make offers that are antithetical to the mission and values of your concern. If you lot want to afford your business concern the maximum legal protection, you lot volition need a trademark.

When you file for a trademark, it only covers one classification. Each additional nomenclature must be noted in the application and volition incur an boosted charge. There are 45 classes to be considered. For example, if your business produces vehicles, you would desire a Grade 12 trademark. If yous additionally wanted to sell clothing with the proper noun of the same visitor on it, yous would need to also have a Class 25 trademark. Consider exactly how y'all will exist using the name to determine which class or classes you should list information technology under.

Who should trademark their business proper name?

If your concern has a unique name, it can be trademarked as long as it isn't likewise similar to another name that has already received a trademark. For example, if the name is too vague, like The Ice Cream Shop, it is unlikely to be eligible for a trademark. Something like Iguana Ice Cream would exist more likely to receive a trademark, since it joins common words in a unique way.

It is besides important to consider the geographical area you lot will be serving. The mutual-constabulary trademark protection that y'all automatically receive by using the name is restricted to your immediate geographic area. If your concern serves multiple states, you'll definitely want to utilize for a trademark to protect your business organization.

If you have several production lines inside your business that also accept unique names, yous may want to trademark those equally well. For example, Ford is a trademark of the Ford Motor Company, which also has trademarks for lines of vehicles such equally the F-150, Mustang, Ranger and Explorer.

Did you know? The common-police force trademark protection that you automatically receive for your concern proper name is simply restricted to your firsthand geographic area. If your business operates in multiple states, yous should apply for a trademark.

Should I get a trademark or LLC first?

Whether you should register for a trademark or an LLC outset largely depends on your business goals.

A limited liability company (LLC) is a concern structure classification inside the U.South. that describes a private limited company. It is unremarkably issued by the country in which the company operates, although you can receive an LLC from any state. An LLC registration usually takes less than a twenty-four hours to procedure, while a trademark takes an average of 3 months.

If you want to brainstorm operating immediately, it makes sense to annals for the LLC starting time. If you take plenty of lead fourth dimension and are more interested in securing your federal rights to the name before you put it out into the world, out of fear that information technology may exist co-opted by someone else, then it makes more than sense to apply for the trademark starting time.

Does your business need a trademark registration right abroad?

Your business organisation does not need to register for a trademark correct away.

Typically y'all need to be able to testify "use in commerce" when registering for a mark, which ways that you should be able to prove it was being used before you could register information technology. However, in that location is the selection to apply for an intent-to-apply (ITU) trademark.

If you keep with an ITU trademark, you still have to demonstrate your use of the mark in commerce by completing the documentation and paying the additional fees within the allotted timeframe prior to the marker'southward registration.

There are merely three periods within which you can merits use in commerce:

Prior to approval for publication
Within half dozen months of the issuance of the discover of allowance (NOA)
Within the time granted by an extension

Yous can establish use in commerce in several different ways, including the following:

Placing the marking on your goods sold or your website for appurtenances sold
Using the marking in association with services being sold

At that place are three types of commerce under federal law:

Strange commerce
Territorial
Interstate

What is not typically acceptable is intrastate commerce, meaning business organisation that is limited to the borders of a single state.

If your business organization can't yet prove you are using the trademark in commerce, or if you won't be able to prove it within the confines of the ICU process, there is no reason to apply for the trademark beginning.

If I register a business proper name, exercise I need to register a trademark?

Registering a business name is typically done at the land level and does non provide federal protection. If you are just going to provide services or products within that country, there is no reason to register for a trademark. If you are offer products and services in multiple states and desire federal protection for the name of your concern, though, you would need to register for a trademark.

How tin you tell if someone else already has rights to a marker?

TESS makes it like shooting fish in a barrel to search the federal database of trademarks in diverse means. The "basic word mark search" allows yous to search names, words and phrases that have received a federal trademark.

The "word and/or design mark search" allows you lot to use either a pattern or words or a combination of the 2 to search the database. However, you will likely need to know the blueprint codes to practise this effectively.

In that location is also the choice to scan the directory or individual fields within the database. If you aren't sure exactly what might have been trademarked but you know a general date, yous tin search by registration or publication date.

If your registration is accustomed, how long is that registration valid?

A trademark registration is valid for equally long as you lot are willing to maintain it. Once a trademark is issued, it does not expire as long as it remains in use for the registered purpose. You see, a trademark does not grant you buying of the word, phrase or prototype; it gives you the correct to that word, phrase or paradigm as it is used to identify the services or goods listed in the registration.

However, using it isn't quite enough. You must requite the USPTO proof that the trademark has remained in use past filing a Section 8 annunciation between the fifth and 6th anniversary of the registration. This is a uncomplicated sworn argument.

Upon the registration's 10th anniversary, actual proof is required. This tin can be an prototype of your production or service using the trademark. You must do this every 10 years.