What is a trademark?

A trademark can be any word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination of these things that identifies your goods or services. It’s how customers recognize you in the marketplace and distinguish you from your competitors.

Examples of famous trademarks:

Why Trademark? Do I need one?

Any business that operates nationally (think online clothing store that ships across the U.S., or a consulting business with clients across the U.S.) should consider trademarking their name to avoid any confusion with another business that could negatively affect your reputation or sales. Even if you own a local business, you want to consider trademarking so in the event you grow and expand outside of your local area, you have peace of mind knowing you own your name and no other company can try to stop you from expanding into their geographical region or industry.

A trademark does the following for your business:

• Identifies the source of your goods or services

• Provides legal protection for your brand

• Helps you guard against counterfeiting and fraud

• Adds value to your Company through licensing revenue

How long does the process take?

It is currently taking anywhere between 10-14 months to register a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Office actions and Client responsiveness to these office actions, impact the above time frame and may cause further delay.

What should I trademark first? my business name, logo, slogan?

We get asked this question often. If you are a small business starting out and don’t yet have a budget to trademark all of your brand identifiers, the order of importance is to trademark your 1) Name, 2) Slogan, and lastly, 3) Logo. One of the reasons behind this is because you are more likely to change or use several different logos, whereas your name is usually more consistent and does not change. Additionally, there are a limited amount of words, whereas logo designs can be unlimited. Hence, trademarking your name is more important than a logo design.

What is the difference between trademarks, copyrights, and patents? 

Trademarks, copyrights, and patents protect different types of intellectual property. As mentioned, a trademark protects brand names and logos used on goods and services. A copyright however protects an original artistic or literary work. A patent protects an invention. For instance, if you invent a new software application, you would apply for a patent to protect the invention itself. You would then apply to register a trademark to protect the brand name of the software application. Lastly, you may register a copyright for the TV commercial that you use to market the product. 

What is the difference between an LLC and a trademark?

This is a very common question we receive. Trademarks are granted at the federal level by the USPTO and give the owner exclusive rights to use their mark throughout the U.S. In contrast, an LLC is a business entity type that gets filed at the state level.

In other words, trademarks prevent someone else from using your brand name in your same industry anywhere in the 50 states. LLC’s are meant to separate and protect your person from the business for legal and tax reasons but are limited to the state in which the LLC is filed. Both trademarks and LLC’s are necessary but serve completely different purposes for your business.

What are the costs associated with trademarking?

The legal and filing fees to file your trademark will vary depending on the mark you are trying to register, how many classes you need to register in and the prior history of your mark that impacts the application.

What if I cannot afford to hire an attorney to file my trademark?

If you’re serious about your business and you have invested a lot of time and money on your branding and marketing, it is imperative that you protect your brand with a federally registered trademark. If you absolutely cannot afford to hire an attorney at the moment, we have a few suggestions of what you can do below:

1. Conduct a search on the trademark website for your name here. Keep in mind that this search only looks for EXACTLY what you type into the search bar. Therefore, this is not a thorough enough search because it won’t pick up on similar names that can still pose a problem for you. What this type of search will do however, is clearly show you if someone already has the name trademarked and then you know you will need to use another name.

2. Conduct an internet search including on Google and different social media platforms to see if there is anyone else in your industry using your same name. This may show you that either your name is used too often in your space, or that someone else has already been using it long before you.

3. Do not use third party companies that have suspiciously low prices. They are not attorneys, not reliable and charge more than they should to provide inadequate service and attention to your specific trademark needs.

Still have questions?

Schedule a discovery call today so we can discuss your specific needs!