Online Trademark Registration: The Basics Of Registration Of Trademark In The United States
When small businesses talk about intellectual property, it is always one of their highest priorities. In fact, a developing business’ intellectual property is what separates sustained long-term expansion from early floundering and unfortunate plateaus in development that can be avoided.
If you are not familiar with intellectual property or hesitant of what composes intellectual property, go through this post.
- Difference Between Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights
This is a common question, but fortunately it has a simple answer! Copyright guards creative pieces that most frequently take the form of music, literature, visual art, or songs. Patents are used to guard new processes, improvements or even inventions to design. A trademark guards a service or product name, a company logo, or a tagline.
- Trademark Rights
The official registration of a trademark is an imperative way to extend and increase trademarks registration rights, but registration is not always essential. In fact, trademark rights are maintained via the constant use of the trademark itself in your products or services.
You are able to get registration for any particular goods and/or services that are essential to your business. But take note: the more services or products you want to cover, the more you will pay in application filing fees.
Even though you might have the name of your business or brand on a public website or storefront does not mean that it is completely protected by trademark law. To get full protection, you will need to register your trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) or the Trademarks Office in your authority. Having a registered trademark will make it much simpler to put into effect trademark rights, pursue any infringers, and take them to federal court for the unofficial use of your trademark.
Unfortunately, just incorporating or registering a corporate name does not make any trademark rights, nor does it comprise any type of government approval for you to use the name as a trademark. Unless you are making use of the domain name as a trademark on your website, just registering it as a domain name does not by itself make trademark rights.
Trademarks can be filed at the federal or state level. State trademarks guard your mark in a particular state while federal trademarks guard your mark in all the states. State trademarks usually offer less legal protection than federal trademarks. Businesses functioning in only one state should trademark in that state. Businesses functioning in interstate commerce may file for a federal trademark.
Things needed to file a trademark registration application in the US
- The complete name of the applicant
- State of incorporation or citizenship
- The complete address of the applicant.
- The telephone number and email address.
- The trademark name. If you are filing for a logo.
- The products which you plan or sell to sell under your trademark.
- The services which you offer or plan to offer under your trademark.
- Whether the trademark been used in the US
