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 When you consider registering a trademark, you should understand the benefits that you can gain. A successful trademark application will earn you federal protection for the name of your company, products or services. That’s a powerful tool that you can use in court to stop competitors from infringing on your name.
Successfully registering a trademark gives you federal rights to the name of your company, products or services. That means that after registering a trademark, you can stop competitors who might be using an identical or similar name. USPTO grants trademark rights because similarly named products can create confusion in the market. From your perspective as a business owner, similarly named products can sap profits if a competitor steals customers using your name.
The Next Steps in Registering a Trademark
After you decide that you want to pursue registering a trademark, Gerben Law Firm can help you understand the process and explain these benefits in more detail. Our services can provide even more value to business owners. Our search process can help you identify other competitors you might not have known about. We conduct those searches as part of our comprehensive search packages to help you receive the greatest protection possible with your trademark. Depending on the type of trademark you file and the uniqueness of the name, your odds of successfully applying for a trademark can vary.
If you are registering a trademark for a descriptive trademark name, you will likely face more resistance from USPTO’s trademark reviewers, and you won’t be able to use the trademark to stop as many competitors in court. For example, if you make and sell dishware and want to name it “Red Ceramics” because you use ceramic, red dishes for all your products, USPTO would be less likely to grant you protection. The rationale is that even if no other company has registered your trademark, your name is so descriptive that someone else in the dish-making industry might need to use the words “red ceramics” to describe their wares.
On the other hand, if you’re registering a trademark for "Red Ceramics" and you’re making and selling wine, USPTO would probably consider your trademark name to be arbitrary, which generally has a higher probability of passing review. The difference is that “red ceramics” has little to do with the general qualities of wine while it could be essential in the dishware industry.
Assistance in Registering a Trademark
When you’re ready to start the process of registering a trademark, Gerben Law Firm can help you wade through these legal details. With our assistance, you’ll have a good feel for the likelihood that you’ll be able to successfully register your trademark. You should do everything possible to make sure your application is successful because USPTO charges a filing of about $325 for each application. And the USPTO won’t refund your fee if you mess up the application or its trademark attorneys reject your trademark because it is too similar to an existing trademark. Gerben Law Firm will search federal databases to make sure that your trademark has a good chance of passing the review process without incident. If we find existing trademarks that resemble the name of your company, products or services, we’ll give you a detailed report that analyzes the threat posed by those results. Trademark attorney Josh Gerben will review them with you to help you decide whether you should proceed with registering a trademark or opt to pick a new name to register.
Even after registering a trademark, you still might encounter resistance. Some states provide “common law” trademark rights. That means that an established company could claim that you are infringing on their right to conduct business using a specific name. The best way to protect yourself against such lawsuits is to purchase Gerben Law Firm’s comprehensive search package. In this search, we spend a significant amount of time digging deeper than federal databases to search for existing companies that use a similar name. Like we do with the federal trademark search, we will review all the results with you to evaluate the likelihood that you could face a legal challenge from another company, even if it doesn’t hold a federally registered trademark.
The advantages of registering a trademark are significant, and the information you collect during process for filing a trademark can produce value, too. You’ll receive a wealth of knowledge about companies that might be competitors. That information can increase your chances of receiving a trademark, and you also might find it to be useful for tweaking your business strategy.
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