US Trademark Application

A Federal Trademark Registration protects your brand by preventing others from exploiting the goodwill and reputation that you built.

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What Protection Does a U.S. Federal Trademark Registration Provide?

Summary

The Breadth of Trademarks

You can register a Trademark on many things associated with your company and its products or services, including:

  • Names, logos, slogans
  • Aesthetic designs, colors, and packaging
  • Sounds, scents

The Exclusivity Effect

Once registered, you have exclusive use of your mark in your field. You can then stop others from using the same or similar mark in your market.

The Prospective Value

A Trademark Registration can become a very valuable asset as its reputation and recognition grows.

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What You Need to Know

Interstate Commerce Mandate

You must use the mark in interstate commerce (sell your goods or services in more than one state) to obtain and keep a Federal Trademark registration. E-commerce qualifies.

An ‘Intent to Use’ Application

If you are not using the mark but you intend to, you can file an ‘Intent to Use’ application. Once allowed, you have up to three years to show use (but extensions must be filed every six months).

The Limits to Trademark Registration

You cannot register a mark that is generic, merely descriptive of your goods or services, or one that is deemed to be confusingly similar to another registered mark.

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Also See Our Other Patent Services:

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Frequently Asked Questions

A Basic Clearance Search provides a review of the registered Trademarks and pending applications that are similar to yours both phonetically and in overall appearance. The Basic Clearance Search is helpful in finding obvious and direct conflicts that may prevent the registration of your proposed mark, or cause potential disagreement with another party down the road.

The length of the process can vary. Once filed, an application is typically assigned to an Examining Attorney within approximately 3 months. If no conflicts are found and if no third-party protests or opposes the registration, then it is feasible for a registration to be issued 4-6 months after that. Therefore, at a minimum, the registration process will require 7-9 months, but it can require much more time (possibly years) if the Examining Attorney issues a refusal or if a third-party files an opposition to the application.

Maybe. This will truly depend on the pre-existing registration, including similarity of that mark to yours, similarity of the goods or services, the willingness of the registrant to take action against you, in addition to a multitude of other factors. It is important to understand that if you use a trademark that is already registered by someone else, you do so at your risk.