How To Register Brand Trademark

Registering your make proper name equally a trademark is a simple three-pace process.
You lot can annals your brand name with the USPTO to protect your intellectual belongings from misuse.
It is not immediately necessary to secure a trademark, though information technology could benefit your brand.
This article is for minor business organization owners who are ready to register and trademark their make proper noun or wondering whether they should.

Registering a trademark for your company is a big footstep that helps yous protect your brand identity from misuse or theft. Registering a trademark is a adequately straightforward process that y'all can complete in just a few like shooting fish in a barrel steps.

This guide will walk you through each step needed to register and trademark your brand proper noun, and answer some frequently asked questions nearly registering your trademark.

What is a trademark?

According to the The states 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 company's name is not as elementary every bit filing for an LLC and may take more than time than you imagine.

1. Search

First, yous demand to search the federal database to ensure the name you desire to trademark isn't already protected as a trademark. You can practise this with the USPTO's Trademark Electronic Search System, too known every bit TESS. Yous should search not but for the name you want, but 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, it tin can be complex. Iguana Water ice Cream and Iguana's Ice Cream might be too similar, for example. Information technology tin also mean that a registered trademark only looks or sounds like your marking or that the meanings are similar.

2. Use

Once yous've searched and cleared the proper name you want to trademark, it's time to fix your trademark application. You tin file for a proper noun already in commercial use or with an intent to use the proper name in the future.

The trademark application itself has 10 components:

The proper noun and address of the bidder
The citizenship and legal entity of the applicant
A proper noun and address for future correspondence (this does not take to be the same as the proper noun of the bidder)
A drawing of the desired marking (if you are only applying for the name and don't want to include a design element, you simply blazon in the name)
A thorough clarification of the mark
A specific list of services or appurtenances covered by the trademark application
The form of services or goods
An example of the mark in employ as well as the date 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 awarding

iii. File

Once you have completed the application, you have two filing options: TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard. The Plus selection is less expensive and more streamlined; it also has a lower charge per unit of rejections. However, if you need to create a custom clarification of your services or goods that is not available in the preset list Plus provides, the risk associated with the Standard option may exist 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 can apply to check the condition of your application in the Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) portal.

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

Trademark FAQs

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

A trademark protects goods, and a service marker 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 trade name is what is used in place of the official business name. This is frequently indicated on paperwork with the phrase "doing business concern as" (DBA). Information technology is used when the business organization name is considered too lengthy or when the desired name was too close to 1 that already had a trademark or service mark. (Note that a merchandise name does not indicate the legally responsible entity behind the service or product.)

Should you trademark your company name?

It isn't necessary to register your marking to receive protectable rights. In the United States, yous are granted "common-law rights" to a mark simply by using it as function of your business. This ways that y'all could brainstorm using it and enforce your ownership of it through documentation of being the first to use it commercially. However, there are limitations on your rights with a mutual-law trademark.

Registering for a federal trademark has a number of advantages. Most importantly, information technology gives yous legal ownership of the mark and the exclusive rights to use it anywhere in the nation equally information technology relates to the appurtenances or services you listed during registration. Mutual-law rights are limited to the immediate geographic area in which yous are operating, and registering the name with your state only protects your rights within the borders of that country.

When y'all annals your mark with the USPTO, in that location will be a public notice stating your ownership, and it will be listed in the online database. With a federally registered trademark, you also have the option to register your trademark with the U.S. Customs and Edge Protection to go along foreign appurtenances from beingness imported with the same proper noun. You'll likewise be able to utilise the federal symbol ® instead of the less enforceable ™ marking.

The proper noun of your company is the main fashion you present it to the globe. Imagine someone else using your company's name to make offers that are antonymous to the mission and values of your business organisation. If you want to beget your business the maximum legal protection, yous will need a trademark.

When y'all file for a trademark, it merely covers 1 nomenclature. Each additional nomenclature must be noted in the application and volition incur an additional accuse. There are 45 classes to be considered. For example, if your business organisation produces vehicles, yous would want a Class 12 trademark. If you lot additionally wanted to sell clothing with the name of the same company on it, you would need to also take a Class 25 trademark. Consider exactly how you volition be using the proper name to decide which form or classes you should listing information technology under.

Who should trademark their business name?

If your business has a unique name, it can be trademarked equally long as it isn't too similar to some other name that has already received a trademark. For example, if the name is too vague, like The Ice Cream Store, it is unlikely to be eligible for a trademark. Something like Iguana Ice Cream would be more probable to receive a trademark, since it joins common words in a unique fashion.

Information technology is also important to consider the geographical area you will be serving. The common-law trademark protection that you automatically receive by using the proper noun is restricted to your immediate geographic area. If your business organization serves multiple states, you'll definitely want to employ for a trademark to protect your business.

If you lot take several production lines within your concern that as well have unique names, you may want to trademark those besides. For example, Ford is a trademark of the Ford Motor Company, which as well has trademarks for lines of vehicles such every bit the F-150, Mustang, Ranger and Explorer.

Did you know? Did yous 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 use 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 organisation goals.

A limited liability company (LLC) is a business organisation structure classification within the U.S. that describes a individual limited company. It is usually issued past the land in which the company operates, although yous tin receive an LLC from any state. An LLC registration usually takes less than a 24-hour interval to process, while a trademark takes an boilerplate of three months.

If you lot want to brainstorm operating immediately, it makes sense to annals for the LLC first. If you have plenty of pb fourth dimension and are more interested in securing your federal rights to the name before you put it out into the globe, out of fear that information technology may be co-opted by someone else, then information technology makes more sense to utilise for the trademark first.

Does your business need a trademark registration right away?

Your business concern does not demand to register for a trademark right away.

Typically you need to be able to show "use in commerce" when registering for a marking, which means that yous should exist able to evidence it was being used before you lot could register information technology. However, there is the option to utilise for an intent-to-utilise (ITU) trademark.

If yous proceed with an ITU trademark, you yet have to demonstrate your employ of the marker in commerce by completing the documentation and paying the additional fees inside the allotted timeframe prior to the mark's registration.

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

Prior to blessing for publication
Inside vi months of the issuance of the notice of assart (NOA)
Within the fourth dimension granted by an extension

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

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

At that place are three 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 country.

If your business organization can't yet prove you are using the trademark in commerce, or if you won't be able to prove information technology within the confines of the ICU process, in that location is no reason to use for the trademark kickoff.

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

Registering a business proper noun is typically done at the state level and does non provide federal protection. If you lot are only going to provide services or products within that state, there 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 organisation, though, you lot would need to register for a trademark.

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

TESS makes information technology piece of cake to search the federal database of trademarks in various ways. The "basic word mark search" allows you to search names, words and phrases that have received a federal trademark.

The "word and/or design mark search" allows you to utilise either a design or words or a combination of the ii to search the database. However, you will likely need to know the design codes to practice this effectively.

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

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

A trademark registration is valid for every bit long as y'all are willing to maintain it. One time a trademark is issued, it does not expire every bit long as it remains in employ for the registered purpose. You see, a trademark does non grant yous buying of the discussion, phrase or paradigm; it gives y'all the right to that give-and-take, phrase or image as it is used to identify the services or appurtenances listed in the registration.

However, using it isn't quite plenty. You must give the USPTO proof that the trademark has remained in use past filing a Section 8 proclamation between the fifth and 6th ceremony of the registration. This is a simple sworn statement.

Upon the registration's tenth anniversary, actual proof is required. This can be an image of your production or service using the trademark. Y'all must do this every 10 years.