Do I Need To Register My Business Logo
- Registering your brand name as a trademark is a simple iii-step process.
- You lot tin can register your brand name with the USPTO to protect your intellectual belongings from misuse.
- It is not immediately necessary to secure a trademark, though it could do good your make.
- This article is for small business owners who are gear up to register and trademark their brand name or wondering whether they should.
Registering a trademark for your company is a big pace that helps you protect your brand identity from misuse or theft. Registering a trademark is a fairly straightforward procedure that you can complete in only a few easy steps.
This guide will walk you lot through each pace needed to annals and trademark your brand name, and reply some oftentimes asked questions about registering your trademark.
What is a trademark?
According to the United states Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a trademark is "a discussion, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the appurtenances of one political party from those of the others."
Steps to trademark your company proper noun
Trademarking your visitor'southward proper name is not as elementary as filing for an LLC and may accept more time than y'all imagine.
1. Search
First, you need to search the federal database to ensure the name y'all want to trademark isn't already protected every bit a trademark. You lot can do this with the USPTO's Trademark Electronic Search System, also known every bit TESS. You should search not but for the name you want, merely for similar names. Your registration could be denied if the proper name is too similar to a name already registered within the same course.
While this sounds straightforward, information technology tin be complex. Iguana Ice Cream and Iguana's Water ice Cream might exist too like, for example. It tin also mean that a registered trademark simply looks or sounds like your mark or that the meanings are like.
ii. Apply
One time you've searched and cleared the name you want to trademark, it's time to prepare your trademark application. You tin file for a proper noun already in commercial use or with an intent to use the name in the futurity.
The trademark application itself has ten components:
- The proper noun and address of the applicant
- The citizenship and legal entity of the applicant
- A name and address for hereafter correspondence (this does non accept to be the same as the name of the applicant)
- A drawing of the desired marking (if you are merely applying for the proper name and don't desire to include a blueprint element, you simply blazon in the name)
- A thorough description of the marking
- A specific list of services or appurtenances covered by the trademark awarding
- The class of services or appurtenances
- An case of the mark in use equally well as the appointment it was kickoff used
- A dated signature from y'all or an authorized representative
- The appropriate fee for the blazon and number of classes included on the application
3. File
One time you have completed the application, y'all have two filing options: TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard. The Plus choice is less expensive and more streamlined; it as well has a lower rate of rejections. However, if you need to create a custom description of your services or goods that is not bachelor in the preset list Plus provides, the risk associated with the Standard option may be more beneficial for your situation.
Once y'all've submitted your application, you volition receive a confirmation receipt from the USPTO and a serial number that yous can use to check the status of your awarding in the Trademark Condition & Certificate Retrieval (TSDR) portal.
Trademark FAQs
What is the difference between a trade name, trademark and service mark?
A trademark protects appurtenances, and a service marking does the same for services. Notwithstanding, the discussion "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 trade name is what is used in place of the official business name. This is oft 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 shut to one that already had a trademark or service marking. (Annotation that a merchandise proper name does not indicate the legally responsible entity behind the service or product.)
Should you trademark your company name?
It isn't necessary to annals your marker to receive protectable rights. In the Usa, y'all are granted "common-police rights" to a mark simply by using it every bit role of your business organisation. This ways that yous could begin using it and enforce your buying of it through documentation of existence the first to use information technology commercially. Notwithstanding, in that location are limitations on your rights with a common-law trademark.
Registering for a federal trademark has a number of advantages. Most importantly, information technology gives yous legal ownership of the marking and the exclusive rights to use it anywhere in the nation as it relates to the goods or services you listed during registration. Common-police rights are limited to the immediate geographic area in which you are operating, and registering the proper name with your country just protects your rights within the borders of that state.
When you register your mark with the USPTO, there will exist a public detect stating your ownership, and it will be listed in the online database. With a federally registered trademark, y'all also have the option to register your trademark with the U.South. Customs and Edge Protection to proceed foreign goods from existence imported with the aforementioned name. You'll likewise be able to use the federal symbol ® instead of the less enforceable ™ marker.
The name of your company is the main way you present it to the earth. Imagine someone else using your company'southward name to make offers that are antonymous to the mission and values of your business concern. If you want to afford your business the maximum legal protection, y'all will need a trademark.
When you file for a trademark, it just covers one classification. Each additional nomenclature must be noted in the application and will incur an additional accuse. There are 45 classes to be considered. For example, if your business produces vehicles, y'all would want a Class 12 trademark. If you additionally wanted to sell clothing with the proper noun of the same company on information technology, you would need to also accept a Form 25 trademark. Consider exactly how you volition be using the name to decide which class or classes you should list it nether.
Who should trademark their business name?
If your business has a unique name, it can be trademarked as long as information technology isn't as well 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 exist eligible for a trademark. Something like Iguana Ice Foam would be more than likely to receive a trademark, since it joins common words in a unique style.
It is also important to consider the geographical area you will be serving. The mutual-law trademark protection that yous automatically receive by using the name is restricted to your immediate geographic surface area. If your business serves multiple states, you'll definitely want to apply for a trademark to protect your business.
If yous take several product lines within your business that also have unique names, you may desire to trademark those as well. For example, Ford is a trademark of the Ford Motor Company, which besides has trademarks for lines of vehicles such as the F-150, Mustang, Ranger and Explorer.
Should I go a trademark or LLC showtime?
Whether you should register for a trademark or an LLC offset largely depends on your business goals.
A express liability company (LLC) is a business structure nomenclature inside the U.S. that describes a individual limited company. It is usually issued by the country in which the company operates, although yous tin receive an LLC from any country. An LLC registration normally takes less than a solar day to process, while a trademark takes an average of three months.
If you lot want to begin operating immediately, it makes sense to register for the LLC start. If you have plenty of atomic number 82 time and are more interested in securing your federal rights to the proper noun before you lot put information technology out into the world, out of fright that it may be co-opted by someone else, then it makes more sense to apply for the trademark first.
Does your business organisation need a trademark registration correct away?
Your business does not demand to annals for a trademark right away.
Typically y'all need to exist able to bear witness "use in commerce" when registering for a mark, which means that you should be able to prove information technology was being used before yous could register it. Yet, at that place is the selection to use for an intent-to-utilize (ITU) trademark.
If you keep with an ITU trademark, you however have to demonstrate your use of the mark in commerce by completing the documentation and paying the additional fees inside the allotted timeframe prior to the marker's registration.
In that location are only 3 periods within which you can claim use in commerce:
- Prior to approval for publication
- Inside six months of the issuance of the notice of allowance (NOA)
- Within the time granted by an extension
You tin can establish apply in commerce in several dissimilar ways, including the post-obit:
- Placing the mark on your goods sold or your website for goods sold
- Using the mark in clan with services beingness sold
In that location are three types of commerce under federal law:
- Foreign commerce
- Territorial
- Interstate
What is non typically acceptable is intrastate commerce, pregnant business that is express to the borders of a single state.
If your business can't yet prove y'all are using the trademark in commerce, or if you won't be able to prove it within the confines of the ICU procedure, there is no reason to utilize 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 country level and does not provide federal protection. If you lot are simply going to provide services or products inside that state, in that location is no reason to annals for a trademark. If you are offer products and services in multiple states and want federal protection for the name of your business, though, y'all would need to register for a trademark.
How can y'all tell if someone else already has rights to a mark?
TESS makes information technology easy to search the federal database of trademarks in diverse ways. The "basic word marking search" allows you to search names, words and phrases that have received a federal trademark.
The "give-and-take and/or design mark search" allows you to use either a design or words or a combination of the two to search the database. However, yous will likely need to know the blueprint codes to do this effectively.
There is also the selection to browse the directory or individual fields within the database. If yous aren't sure exactly what might accept been trademarked but you know a general date, you can search past registration or publication date.
If your registration is accepted, how long is that registration valid?
A trademark registration is valid for as long as you lot are willing to maintain it. Once a trademark is issued, information technology does not elapse as long every bit it remains in utilise for the registered purpose. Y'all see, a trademark does not grant you ownership of the discussion, phrase or prototype; it gives you the right to that word, phrase or epitome every bit it is used to place the services or goods listed in the registration.
Nonetheless, using it isn't quite plenty. You lot must give the USPTO proof that the trademark has remained in utilize by filing a Department 8 declaration between the fifth and sixth anniversary of the registration. This is a unproblematic sworn statement.
Upon the registration'south 10th anniversary, actual proof is required. This tin can exist an image of your product or service using the trademark. You must practise this every 10 years.
Source: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/15762-how-to-register-trademark-brand-name.html
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