How To Register A Name Trademark

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

Registering a trademark for your visitor is a big step that helps yous protect your brand identity from misuse or theft. Registering a trademark is a adequately straightforward process that you can consummate in only a few easy steps.

This guide will walk you through each pace needed to register and trademark your make name, and reply some oft asked questions about registering your trademark.

What is a trademark?

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

Steps to trademark your visitor proper noun

Trademarking your company's name is not as uncomplicated as filing for an LLC and may take more than fourth dimension than you lot imagine.

one. Search

First, you demand to search the federal database to ensure the proper name you 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. Y'all should search not only for the name you want, only for similar names. Your registration could be denied if the name is too similar to a name already registered within the aforementioned class.

While this sounds straightforward, information technology can be circuitous. Iguana Ice Foam and Iguana's Ice Foam might be as well like, for case. It tin can likewise mean that a registered trademark simply looks or sounds like your mark or that the meanings are similar.

2. Apply

In one case you lot've searched and cleared the name you want to trademark, it'due south fourth dimension to fix your trademark application. You tin can file for a proper noun already in commercial use or with an intent to use the name in the future.

The trademark application itself has 10 components:

The name and accost of the applicant
The citizenship and legal entity of the applicant
A proper noun and address for futurity correspondence (this does not have to be the aforementioned as the name of the applicant)
A drawing of the desired mark (if y'all are but applying for the proper name and don't want to include a design chemical element, you but type in the name)
A thorough description of the mark
A specific listing of services or appurtenances covered by the trademark application
The form of services or goods
An example of the mark in use as well as the engagement it was first used
A dated signature from y'all or an authorized representative
The advisable fee for the type and number of classes included on the application

3. File

Once you have completed the application, you lot have two filing options: TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard. The Plus option is less expensive and more than streamlined; information technology besides has a lower charge per unit of rejections. All the same, if you need to create a custom description of your services or goods that is not available in the preset list Plus provides, the adventure associated with the Standard pick may exist more benign for your situation.

Once you've submitted your awarding, y'all will receive a confirmation receipt from the USPTO and a series number that you can apply to check the status of your application in the Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) portal.

Key takeaway Cardinal takeaway: To annals and trademark your brand name, search the TESS database for similar brand names, fill out the trademark awarding, and submit it to the USPTO for review.

Trademark FAQs

What is the deviation betwixt a trade name, trademark and service mark?

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

A trade name is what is used in identify of the official business name. This is ofttimes indicated on paperwork with the phrase "doing business equally" (DBA). It is used when the business organisation proper noun is considered besides lengthy or when the desired proper noun was too shut to one that already had a trademark or service mark. (Annotation that a trade proper noun does not betoken the legally responsible entity behind the service or production.)

Should you trademark your company proper noun?

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

Registering for a federal trademark has a number of advantages. Almost chiefly, it gives you legal ownership of the marker and the exclusive rights to use it anywhere in the nation as it relates to the goods or services y'all listed during registration. Mutual-law rights are limited to the immediate geographic area in which you are operating, and registering the name with your state simply protects your rights within the borders of that state.

When y'all register your mark with the USPTO, there will be a public observe stating your buying, and information technology will be listed in the online database. With a federally registered trademark, y'all also accept the option to register your trademark with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to go on foreign goods from existence imported with the same name. You'll also be able to apply the federal symbol ® instead of the less enforceable ™ mark.

The name of your company is the chief way yous nowadays it to the world. Imagine someone else using your visitor'due south proper noun to make offers that are antithetical to the mission and values of your business. If you lot want to afford your business the maximum legal protection, you will need a trademark.

When y'all file for a trademark, it merely covers i classification. Each additional classification must be noted in the application and will incur an additional charge. There are 45 classes to be considered. For example, if your business concern produces vehicles, yous would desire a Class 12 trademark. If y'all additionally wanted to sell wearable with the proper noun of the same company on it, you lot would need to too have a Class 25 trademark. Consider exactly how you will be using the proper name to determine which class or classes you should list it under.

Who should trademark their business name?

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

Information technology is besides of import to consider the geographical area you lot will be serving. The common-police trademark protection that y'all automatically receive by using the name is restricted to your immediate geographic surface area. If your business serves multiple states, you'll definitely desire to apply for a trademark to protect your business organization.

If you take several product lines within your business that also have unique names, you may want to trademark those also. For instance, Ford is a trademark of the Ford Motor Company, which also has trademarks for lines of vehicles such as the F-150, Mustang, Ranger and Explorer.

Did you know? The mutual-law trademark protection that you automatically receive for your business name is only restricted to your firsthand geographic surface area. If your concern operates in multiple states, you should employ for a trademark.

Should I get a trademark or LLC first?

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

A express liability visitor (LLC) is a business construction classification within the U.South. that describes a private limited visitor. It is usually issued by the land in which the company operates, although you can receive an LLC from any state. An LLC registration unremarkably takes less than a day to process, while a trademark takes an boilerplate of iii months.

If y'all want to begin operating immediately, it makes sense to register for the LLC first. If y'all take enough of atomic number 82 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 it may be co-opted by someone else, and then it makes more sense to apply for the trademark offset.

Does your business organisation demand a trademark registration correct away?

Your concern does non need to register for a trademark correct abroad.

Typically you demand to be able to show "use in commerce" when registering for a marking, which means that you should exist able to testify information technology was being used before you could register it. However, at that place is the option to use for an intent-to-utilize (ITU) trademark.

If yous proceed with an ITU trademark, yous still accept to demonstrate your apply of the mark in commerce by completing the documentation and paying the additional fees within the allotted timeframe prior to the mark's registration.

There are simply 3 periods within which you tin can claim use in commerce:

Prior to blessing for publication
Within six months of the issuance of the discover of allowance (NOA)
Within the time granted by an extension

Y'all can establish use in commerce in several different ways, including the following:

Placing the marker on your goods sold or your website for goods sold
Using the mark in association with services being sold

There are three types of commerce under federal police force:

Strange commerce
Territorial
Interstate

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

If your business tin can't all the same prove you are using the trademark in commerce, or if y'all won't be able to prove it within the confines of the ICU process, there is no reason to use for the trademark first.

If I register a business name, do I need to register a trademark?

Registering a business name is typically done at the state level and does not provide federal protection. If you are just going to provide services or products inside that state, there is no reason to register for a trademark. If yous are offering products and services in multiple states and want federal protection for the name of your business organisation, though, y'all would need to register for a trademark.

How can you tell if someone else already has rights to a mark?

TESS makes it easy to search the federal database of trademarks in diverse means. The "basic word marker search" allows you to search names, words and phrases that have received a federal trademark.

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

At that place is also the selection to browse the directory or private fields inside the database. If you aren't certain exactly what might have been trademarked simply y'all know a general date, y'all tin can search past registration or publication date.

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

A trademark registration is valid for as long as you are willing to maintain it. In one case 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 lot buying of the word, phrase or paradigm; it gives you the right to that word, phrase or image every bit it is used to identify the services or appurtenances listed in the registration.

However, using information technology isn't quite enough. You lot must requite the USPTO proof that the trademark has remained in utilise by filing a Section 8 announcement between the 5th and sixth anniversary of the registration. This is a simple sworn argument.

Upon the registration'south tenth anniversary, actual proof is required. This can be an image of your product or service using the trademark. You lot must exercise this every 10 years.