Trademark 101: Should You Trademark?

Source

Now that we know what a trademark is and is not, let’s dive into the next logical question: should you trademark?

The easiest way to answer this question is to look at your business and your plans for it.

-          Is the name, logo, or slogan an integral part of your business?

-          Are you doing business on a statewide or nationwide or international level? If you’re only doing business citywide or countywide, do you see potential for geographical growth?

-          Would another business in your industry using the same or similar name hurt your business? In other words, is it possible you’d lose customers if someone had the same or similar name in your industry?

If you answered yes to any of the above then exploring a trademark is the way to go.

Here’s what a US Federal trademark gives you:

·         A legal presumption of your ownership of the mark and your exclusive right to use the mark nationwide on or in connection with the goods/services listed in the registration (whereas a state registration only provides rights within the borders of that one state, and common law rights exist only for the specific area where the mark is used);

·         Public notice of your claim of ownership of the mark;

·         Listing in the USPTO’s online databases;

·         The ability to record the U.S. registration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to prevent importation of infringing foreign goods; • The right to use the federal registration symbol “® ”;

·         The ability to bring an action concerning the mark in federal court; and

·         The use of the U.S. registration as a basis to obtain registration in foreign countries

Pretty nice perks, huh? If you’re still not sure if a trademark is right for you, please leave me a comment or send me an email shannon at tmexpress dot com

Trademark 101: What Isn’t a Trademark?

Source

Yesterday’s post was all about what a trademark is so today we’re going to talk about what a trademark is not. Knowing both sides of that coin will give you a clear idea if a trademark is right for you or not.

Let’s use yesterday’s examples as a jumping off point:

·         PEACE is the name of your new clothing line and your logo is the peace sign. Both of these things appear on the tags that are attached to the clothing items. You have a variety of designs and sayings that appear on the front of your clothing items, e.g. the front of a t-shirt.

·         LOVE is the name of your daycare services. Your slogan, Love blooms here, appears on the web site, the brochures for new parents, the signage inside & outside of the facility. There are also multiple heart designs, created by you, used in your advertisements.

·         HAPPINESS is the name you use for your invention, a new kind of food processor. You have stacks & stacks of technical documents explaining how your invention works and every page has the name at the top.

	POSSIBLE TRADEMARKS:	NOT A TRADEMARK:
PEACE	Name & heart logo as shown on the tags	Designs & sayings on the front of the clothing
LOVE	Name; slogan since it identifies the services and is used in the offering of those services	Multiple heart designs
HAPPINESS	Name of the food processor	Technical documents

So why are those items not trademarks? The main reason is that none of them identify the source (i.e. the origin) of the goods/services. Let’s do the breakdown explanation you all know by now that I love.

PEACE has a number of designs and sayings that appear on the clothing items, e.g. the front of a t-shirt. These items do not identify the clothing brand itself. They are merely decorative or ornamental.

LOVE uses a bunch of unique heart designs in their advertisements – billboards, leaflets, newspaper ads, etc. – but these designs are not used on the web site, the signage, etc. In other words, clients wouldn’t refer to these heart designs when looking for this business.

-          These designs may be eligible for copyright protection. We’ll get into that area of intellectual property at a later day.

HAPPINESS is the name at the top of the technical documents, which is not the good to be sold (i.e. the food processor) but rather is the technical explanation of how the good works. If you’re looking for a food processor, you’re not going to look for the technical mumbo-jumbo.

-          These technical documents would be part of your patent application. Again, we’ll explore that another day.

I hope this quick primer helps explain what a trademark is AND helps you decide if going the trademark route is right for you.

And if you’re still not sure, leave a comment or drop me a line – shannon at tmexpress dot com

Trademark 101: What is a Trademark?

Source

Welcome to the first day of class! Before we get into the nitty gritty of trademarks, let’s go back to the beginning. And the beginning of the beginning is defining what a trademark is and what a trademark is not.

Here’s what the USPTO says: “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.”

So, that’s clear, right? Mmhm, thought so. Let’s simplify this a bit.

First things first, we’re going to use the word trademark regardless if we’re talking about a business that sells products (i.e. goods) or services. Keep that in mind please.

Simply put, a trademark protects names, logos, or a combination thereof that are used for goods and/or services. Let’s break that down even further using examples:

·         PEACE is the name of your new clothing line and your logo is the peace sign. Both of these things appear on the tags that are attached to the clothing items. You have a variety of designs and sayings that appear on the front of your clothing items, e.g. the front of a t-shirt.

·         LOVE is the name of your daycare services. Your slogan, Love blooms here, appears on the web site, the brochures for new parents, the signage inside & outside of the facility. There are also multiple heart designs, created by you, used in your advertisements and on t-shirts worn by staff.

·         HAPPINESS is the name you use for your invention, a new kind of food processor. You have stacks & stacks of technical documents explaining how your invention works and every page has the name at the top.

What do you think could be a trademark? What isn’t?

	POSSIBLE TRADEMARKS:	NOT A TRADEMARK:
PEACE	Name & heart logo as shown on the tags	Designs & sayings on the front of the clothing
LOVE	Name; slogan since it identifies the services and is used in the offering of those services	Multiple heart designs
HAPPINESS	Name of the food processor	Technical documents

As you can see, the common denominator for those possible trademarks is that (1) they are names or logos or slogans and (2) are used to identify the source of the products (i.e. goods) and services. This last point is often a sticky wicket for folks. Let’s break these examples down even further to differentiate the source from the goods/services created.

PEACE and the logo identify the source (the clothing line) of the goods (the individual clothing items with the designs & sayings on them)

LOVE and the slogan identify the source (the daycare) of the services. In other words, that’s the name & slogan of the business.

HAPPINESS identifies the source of the tangible good (the food processor). This is the name that will be on the product itself, the tags, labels, packaging, etc.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about what a trademark is not and, furthermore, how the examples of non-trademarks can be protected.

And we're back!

Source

Hello there readers!

The blog has been on a bit of a hiatus as we revamped our site (check it out - nice, eh?) and while I specifically re-focused my day-to-day activities.

But, I'm back and am here to talk trademark and answer any questions. Have one? Leave a comment or send me an email - shannon at tmexpress dot com

Since it's been awhile, I thought it a good idea to go back to Trademark 101 so that's what we're going to do. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be going back to the beginning and outlining the basics of the basics.

The trademark world and the USPTO don't change in leaps and bounds but there have been enough significant changes that it's worth going over these essentials.

So, thanks for reading & here we go!