How To Register A Name As A Trademark

Registering your brand name equally a trademark is a elementary three-step process.
Y'all tin register your make proper noun with the USPTO to protect your intellectual holding from misuse.
It is non immediately necessary to secure a trademark, though it could do good your brand.
This article 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 you protect your brand identity from misuse or theft. Registering a trademark is a fairly straightforward procedure that you can consummate in just a few like shooting fish in a barrel steps.

This guide volition walk you through each step needed to register 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 Function (USPTO), a trademark is "a discussion, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one political party from those of the others."

Steps to trademark your company proper name

Trademarking your visitor's name is non every bit elementary as filing for an LLC and may take more time than you lot imagine.

one. Search

Commencement, you need to search the federal database to ensure the name you desire to trademark isn't already protected as a trademark. You can do this with the USPTO's Trademark Electronic Search System, also known as TESS. You should search non only for the name you lot desire, but for similar names. Your registration could be denied if the proper noun is too similar to a name already registered within the aforementioned class.

While this sounds straightforward, information technology can be circuitous. Iguana Ice Cream and Iguana'southward Water ice Cream might be too similar, for example. It can also mean that a registered trademark simply looks or sounds like your mark or that the meanings are similar.

2. Apply

Once you've searched and cleared the name you want to trademark, it's fourth dimension to set up your trademark application. You can file for a proper noun already in commercial use or with an intent to use the name in the time to come.

The trademark awarding itself has x components:

The name and address of the applicant
The citizenship and legal entity of the applicant
A name and address for future correspondence (this does non take to be the same every bit the name of the bidder)
A drawing of the desired marker (if you are only applying for the name and don't want to include a design element, you just type in the name)
A thorough clarification of the mark
A specific listing of services or goods covered by the trademark application
The class of services or goods
An example of the marking in utilize also as the engagement information technology was get-go 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 you have completed the application, you have two filing options: TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard. The Plus option is less expensive and more than streamlined; it also has a lower rate of rejections. Nevertheless, if you demand to create a custom description of your services or appurtenances that is not available in the preset list Plus provides, the gamble associated with the Standard choice may be more than benign for your situation.

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

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

Trademark FAQs

What is the difference between a trade proper noun, trademark and service mark?

A trademark protects goods, and a service marking does the aforementioned for services. However, 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 concern name. This is frequently indicated on paperwork with the phrase "doing business organisation as" (DBA). It is used when the concern name is considered too lengthy or when the desired proper noun was also close to one that already had a trademark or service mark. (Note that a trade proper name does non indicate the legally responsible entity backside the service or product.)

Should you trademark your visitor name?

Information technology isn't necessary to register your mark to receive protectable rights. In the United States, y'all are granted "common-police force rights" to a mark merely past using it as part of your business. This means that you could begin using information technology and enforce your ownership of it through documentation of being the kickoff to utilize it commercially. However, there are limitations on your rights with a common-police force trademark.

Registering for a federal trademark has a number of advantages. Nigh importantly, information technology gives yous legal ownership of the mark and the exclusive rights to use it anywhere in the nation as it relates to the goods or services you listed during registration. Common-law rights are limited to the immediate geographic area in which you are operating, and registering the proper noun with your country only protects your rights inside the borders of that land.

When you register your mark with the USPTO, there will be a public notice stating your ownership, and information technology will be listed in the online database. With a federally registered trademark, y'all also take the option to register your trademark with the U.Due south. Customs and Border Protection to keep foreign goods from being imported with the same proper name. You lot'll as well be able to use the federal symbol ® instead of the less enforceable ™ mark.

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

When you file for a trademark, it only covers one classification. Each additional classification must be noted in the application and will incur an boosted charge. There are 45 classes to exist considered. For case, if your business produces vehicles, y'all would want a Course 12 trademark. If you additionally wanted to sell clothing with the name of the same company on information technology, you would need to also take a Class 25 trademark. Consider exactly how yous will be using the name to make up one's mind which class or classes you lot should list information technology nether.

Who should trademark their business name?

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

It is also important to consider the geographical area you volition be serving. The common-law trademark protection that y'all automatically receive by using the name is restricted to your firsthand geographic area. If your business concern serves multiple states, you'll definitely want to employ for a trademark to protect your business.

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

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

Should I get a trademark or LLC commencement?

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

A express liability visitor (LLC) is a business construction classification within the U.S. that describes a private limited company. It is usually issued by the country in which the company operates, although you lot tin receive an LLC from whatever country. An LLC registration usually takes less than a day to procedure, while a trademark takes an average of iii months.

If you want to begin operating immediately, it makes sense to register for the LLC first. If y'all have enough of pb time and are more interested in securing your federal rights to the name before yous put it out into the world, out of fright that it may be co-opted past someone else, so it makes more sense to apply for the trademark commencement.

Does your business need a trademark registration right away?

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

Typically yous need to be able to show "use in commerce" when registering for a marking, which ways that yous should be able to testify it was existence used before you could annals it. Yet, there is the selection to apply for an intent-to-apply (ITU) trademark.

If you proceed with an ITU trademark, you nonetheless take to demonstrate your use of the mark in commerce past completing the documentation and paying the additional fees within the allotted timeframe prior to the marking's registration.

There are only three periods within which you tin can claim utilize in commerce:

Prior to approval for publication
Within six months of the issuance of the notice of assart (NOA)
Inside the time granted by an extension

Y'all tin can institute utilize in commerce in several different ways, including the post-obit:

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

There are iii types of commerce under federal law:

Foreign commerce
Territorial
Interstate

What is not typically adequate is intrastate commerce, significant business that is limited to the borders of a unmarried state.

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

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

Registering a business name is typically done at the country level and does non provide federal protection. If you are simply going to provide services or products within that country, at that place is no reason to annals for a trademark. If you are offering products and services in multiple states and want federal protection for the name of your business organization, though, you lot would need to register for a trademark.

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

TESS makes information technology easy to search the federal database of trademarks in various ways. The "basic word marking search" allows you 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 volition likely demand to know the design codes to practise this effectively.

There is also the option to browse the directory or individual fields inside the database. If you aren't sure exactly what might take been trademarked but yous know a general date, y'all can search past registration or publication appointment.

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

A trademark registration is valid for as long as you are willing to maintain information technology. Once a trademark is issued, it does not elapse equally long as it remains in use for the registered purpose. Yous come across, a trademark does not grant yous ownership of the word, phrase or epitome; it gives you lot the right to that give-and-take, phrase or image 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 utilise past filing a Section 8 declaration betwixt the fifth and sixth anniversary of the registration. This is a elementary sworn statement.

Upon the registration'south 10th anniversary, bodily proof is required. This can exist an image of your product or service using the trademark. You lot must do this every 10 years.