Trademark Services
What Exactly is a Trademark?
A trademark is a distinctive symbol, word, phrase, or design that identifies and differentiates one source of goods or services from others. These are meant to minimize confusion if two or more businesses have the same symbol, logo, or slogan. A trademark allows a consumer to recognize a brand easily and what it offers. Trademarks can often include logos, slogans, business names, and even sounds affiliated with the company’s products or services. Trademarks are managed by the US Patent and Trade Office also known as the USPTO.
How Would Your Company Benefit from Having a Trademark?
You might wonder why you should consider trademarking your company, here’s a few reasons why:
Brand Protection
Consumer Trust
Legal Advantage
By having a registered trademark you can ensure others can’t use a similar logo, name, branding, or slogan which could confuse customers. Your registered trademark allows for legal action to be taken if your name, slogan, logo, or branding is to be copied.
Intellectual Property
A trademark is an important part of your business’s intellectual property portfolio, this adds value to your brand and business in the marketplace.
Contact Us
At SiteSolace, we understand the importance of protecting your brand. If you have any questions about trademarks or need assistance with trademark registration, feel free to contact us through our website or email us.
What Does the US Government Say About Trademarks?
In the United States, trademarks are governed by federal law under the Lanham Act. This provides legal protection for registered trademarks. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is responsible for managing trademark registrations. Trademarks can also be protected under state laws, but federal registration gives you broader protection across the country.
You may wonder why you should go through the hassle of trademarking. The answer is simple, common law ownership only protects your trademark within the geographical region which leaves it vulnerable and eligible for use outside of your region. This means that if you start a business in one state and do not register its trademark, someone in the next state over can copy your business’s slogan, logo, name, or branding. Having a trademark allows for stronger nationwide rights and the right to sue someone federally.
The process of registering a trademark through the USPTO is a tedious process that involves specifying your intent for the trademark, filing it to the USPTO, and much more. This is where Sitesolace comes in to help, we streamline the process of trademarking your business to allow you to focus on your business while we handle the tedious processes for you.
Trademarks focus on distinguishing your products or services in the marketplace, while copyrights are designed to protect creative works from being copied or used without permission. While trademarks protect brand elements like logos, names, and symbols, copyright protects original works of authorship, such as books, music, artwork, and other creative expressions. Both of these play essential roles in safeguarding different types of intellectual property.
Strong and weak trademarks
Having a strong or weak may be a difference between a quicker application approval period or complete rejection.
Other trademarks exist such as a certification mark that shows products and services have met a standard and collective trademarks that indicate a membership in a group or distinguish products and services of members from non-members.
Generic Marks
Generic marks do not qualify for a trademark because they are generic words that are commonly used when conducting business. Certain common nouns however can be used as a trademark if they are distinguishable enough to be affiliated with the brand.
Coin Marks
Arbitrary Marks
Arbitrary marks are the words and phrases that include a common phrase but not those that are associated with an attribute of the brand, these are relatively easy to obtain as well.
Service Marks
Service marks are those that distinguish businesses that provide services from businesses that provide goods, companies like Apple or Starbucks both have a service mark and trademark as they provide both products and services.
FAQ's
In the US, once registered, a trademark lasts for 10 years, but it can be renewed indefinitely every 10 years, as long as it is still in use.