Introduction
You have a fantastic product, service, or idea. You’re ready to take it to the next level and begin selling. But, before that, you must ensure that you have a strong brand name in place. Competitors will be unable to steal your ideas and profit from them before you. We’ll go through four ways that trade mark registration may assist you protect your rights as promptly as possible without breaking the bank: USPTO Trademark Filing strategy and intent-to-use applications; appropriately employing your products and services listing; and lastly, beginning to use your mark in commerce.
Consider a Filing Strategy
A trademark is a term, phrase, or sign that indicates the origin of a product or service. Trademarks are often words or phrases, although they may also be logos, slogans, or taglines. Trademark law safeguards “distinctive” trademarks by banning others from using them in their own brand identification.
There are five sorts of trademarks:
A trademark distinguishes items or services offered under a certain name (often referred to as “branding”). Coca-Cola®, Nike®, and Apple® laptops are a few examples.
A service mark denotes services offered by a single firm under its own brand name (rather than just the good itself). The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLLP, for example, provides hotel services under the Ritz-CarltonTM mark.
Collective Mark – A collective mark refers to all members of an association that supply goods or services that are comparable to those of other members of an industry trade group, such as “The Florida Nursery Growers Association.”
Certification Mark – Certification marks identify goods or services that meet specific criteria established by an independent organisation with oversight over industry quality control standards; for example, USDA Organic certified agricultural products must meet certain criteria before receiving official certification from USDA’s National Organic Program staff.
Be cautious of the intent-to-use Application
A trademark applicant who has not yet used the mark in commerce may file an intent-to-use application. In contrast to a conventional trademark application, an intent-to-use application requires you to demonstrate your intend to use the mark in commerce even if no actual use has happened. This might be difficult since you don’t have any sales or marketing data to back up your claim of purpose to do business under this specific brand.
Maintain Your Goods and Services List
The products and services listing is the one place on your USPTO trademark application where you may be inventive. It is what distinguishes your brand from other trademarks, so make sure you keep to it! If you modify it after submitting your application, it will become public record and may effect future applications.
If you do not stick to your products and services list, you risk losing your trademark.
Begin Using Your Trademark in Business
The best approach to begin is to use your trademark in commerce. To do this, you must utilise your trademark on all of the goods and services indicated in your application. Furthermore, you must use the mark in accordance with the products or services indicated in your application. Furthermore, if practicable and acceptable for your company model, try building a brand identity around the mark and incorporating it into that identity (e.g., logo). Consider marketing efforts that capitalise on the popularity of your trademark but do not necessarily involve direct competition with other trademark owners—for example, limited edition products such as t-shirts or mugs emblazoned with “brand name” may be a good idea if sold at events related to media coverage of said event but not sold online where they might compete directly with another company’s product line. When developing branding strategies like these, it’s critical to ensure that they’re consistent not only across platforms but also within platforms—for example, if you send out tweets about new products every Saturday morning at 10 a.m. EST, make sure those tweets are always sent out from 10 a.m. EST until 11 a.m. EST every Saturday morning, regardless of whether there’s been any major news about what happened between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.
File a trademark application to protect your brand name.
Trademark registration may be the most effective approach to safeguard your brand identity. A trademark is a term, phrase, or symbol that is used to identify and differentiate one product or service from another. Registering a trademark grants you the right to use it in connection with your goods or services, bans others from using it in the same area on similar goods and services, and aids in preventing customer confusion about the source of products or services. In other words, if you see the word “Coke” on a soft drink bottle, you know it was made by Coca Cola since only Coca Cola has been granted authorization to use this term as part of its mark. [1]
The benefits of trademark registration exceed the expenses so dramatically that many firms are willing to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars each year on their legal departments only to safeguard their brand names. Even if you have no plans to sell your company anytime soon (or ever), there are numerous reasons why registering for trademark protection should be high on your priority list:
Conclusion
You’ll be well on your way to brand name security if you follow these suggestions and keep an eye on your US trademark application.
