Trademarks Build Strong Brands
Browse our trademark guides and articles to get started, then add Trademark Registration to ensure your brand is secure.
Explore Our Trademark Services
Trademark Registration helps create a strong brand. Sending cease and desist letters in the face of infringement helps keep it that way.
Trademark Registration
We’ll do all the heavy lifting to get your trademark registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Our Trademark Registration service costs $599 total. You can add this service without a Law on Call subscription.
Cease and Desist Letters
Is someone infringing on your IP? We’ll put them on notice with a cease and desist letter. Our C&D drafting costs just $99. When you use our Trademark Registration service, our attorneys are available for all of your cease and desist needs.
How to Protect Your Trademark in 6 steps
Trademark protection can look different for everyone, but there are several steps to consider when building a strong brand.
1. Create a Strong Mark
Trademark protection begins on day one, when you select your mark. Stronger trademarks typically contain a bit of whimsy and don’t directly speak to the goods or services at hand. Though it may seem counter-intuitive, the less descriptive your trademark is, the stronger its inherent rights will be.
So, consider your brand. What does it look like today, and what do you want it to look like in the future? If your desired trademark is more descriptive, do you have enough market presence to stand out? Once you’ve nailed down a direction, it’s time to see if anything similar already exists.
2. Ensure It’s Unique
Trademarks cannot be confusingly similar to existing marks. They must be unique within their industry. Prior to federal registration, marks are compared against existing and pending registered trademarks—if yours is confusingly similar to any others, registration will be hindered.
But this doesn’t mean non-registered marks don’t count. If you infringe on someone’s trademark rights, whether or not their mark is registered, they may be able to prevent the registration of your mark.
Before building your brand around a mark, make sure your mark stands out by doing a thorough search in places like:
- The USPTO
- State trademark registrations
- Business name registries
- Social media
- Domain registries
3. Put it to Use
A trademark must be in use to be protected. It you thought of an awesome business name but haven’t actually created that business or sold anything, you don’t have a trademark. You have an idea. Trademark rights belong to the party who first used the mark. So put it to use!
4. Register with the USPTO
Registering your trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office is not necessary for protection. A trademark has inherent protections once it’s in use. However, federal trademark registration comes with numerous benefits, including:
- Exclusive use of the mark nationally
- Easy-to-find proof of your trademark’s existence
- Ability to sue for infringement in federal court
- Use of the registered symbol ®
5. Monitor for Infringement
It’s up to you to protect your trademark from infringement and misuse, and to take action should it occur. If infringement goes unchecked, it can weaken your trademark’s rights over time. So if you ever notice someone using a trademark like yours to promote similar goods and/or services, you’ll likely want to take action.
Responding to trademark infringement can take a few different forms. It often makes sense to reach out to the other party directly to ask them to stop using the mark. If that doesn’t work (and if you have federal trademark registration), you might send a cease and desist letter that outlines any legal action you’ll take if they continue use.
And if the misuse occurs on a third-party platform, you may be able to tap any processes they have in place to address the issue.
6. Maintain Renewal Paperwork
To maintain federal trademark registration, you need to file renewal paperwork. Your first filing is due by year 6 post-registration, your next filing by year 10, and then every 10 years thereafter.
If you continue using your trademark and maintain your renewals, your trademark can keep its registration forever.
Get attorney-led trademark registration for $599 total. Expert advice at every step.
Types of Trademarks
Registered trademarks protect exactly what’s included in the application—no more, no less. So if you submit only words, you’ve protected those words. If you submit a logo, you’ve protected that exact logo.
You can register multiple types of trademarks by submitting multiple applications. That means if you want to protect both your business name and your logo, you’ll need to submit two applications to the USPTO.
WOrd
Word marks generally take the form of business names, product names, and slogans. They protect words only. So if you register a word mark, all design elements are left behind, leaving just the characters.
Design
Design marks are often logos. They can be registered in specific colors or without any colors claimed. If any words are part of the design, they are only protected in relation to the design itself—the words on their own will not be protected.
Color
A color can be trademarked if it’s a unique brand element. The most well-known example of this is Tiffany blue. This doesn’t mean no other business can use that color, but it does protect the color for a specific use within a specific industry.
Sound
Sounds can be registered trademarks. As with any mark, they must be connected to a product or service in order to qualify for registration. So that song you wrote can’t be trademarked unless you use it to sell your window cleaning services.
Trademark registration is complicated. We’re here to tackle it for you.
Let us navigate this nuanced government system so you don’t have to.
Protect Your Trademark from the Start
Take strides to elevate your trademark rights and keep them secure.
Is My Trademark Protected Without Registration?
Trademarks come with some inherent protections. If you’re the first to use a specific mark, you’ll have rights to it within your location and industry. Registration is what gives you rights nationwide, allows you to use ®, let’s you sue for infringement in federal court, and provides clear proof of ownership.
Should I register My trademark?
If you want exclusive rights to your trademark nationwide, registering your mark with the USPTO is the way to go. Without registration, you’ll have rights in the physical area(s) where your business operates. While this gets tricky with online sales and social media, federal registration provides the most cut-and-dry protection route.
Do I need an attorney for trademark registration?
Not necessarily. You can submit a trademark application to the USPTO on your own, unless you’re located outside the U.S. (in which case you do need an attorney to file). However, the trademark application process is long and complex, generally taking about a year from start to finish.
To have a better chance of success, you’ll need to do plenty of research to confirm that your mark is eligible and unique. Once you’re sure of that, you’ll need to become familiar with terms like trademark class, goods and services descriptions, specimens, use in commerce, and intent to use. Once your application is submitted, terms such as likelihood of confusion and office actions may enter your vocabulary.
So while you don’t technically need a lawyer to file, having a trademark lawyer on hand helps a ton. They already know what to look out for, what questions to ask, and how to guide you closer to registration than you might be able to get on your own.
What if someone copies my trademark?
If your trademark is misused or infringed upon, your options will depend on whether your mark is registered, and where/how the misuse occurred.
But the simplest option may hold true regardless: reaching out to the other party directly and asking them to stop use. If that doesn’t work, you might send a more formal demand in the form of a cease and desist letter. From there, if your mark is registered and the infringement is dire, you might sue. If the infringement is platform-specific, happening on a social media site for example, you may have take-down options within the site itself.
Need a cease and desist letter drafted? Want help renewing a trademark?
Reach out to let us know. We can hep.
Helpful Trademark Tips
Read our latest articles to learn more about how to protect your trademark.
-
What Is a Trademark?
Trademarks help distinguish brands, products, and services from each other. They can take the form of logos or jingles, catchphrases or business names.
-
Intellectual Property: Definition and Types
Intellectual property is a creation of the mind. It can be tangible or intangible, and can take the form of music or books, art or logos, phrases, inventions, recipes, or designs.
Ready to be part of a better system?
