Can i trademark my brand name [Up To Date]

Last updated : Sept 15, 2022

Should I copyright or trademark my brand name?

A trademark can protect your name and logo in case someone else wants to use them for their own purposes. Also, you cannot really copyright a name, since copyright protects artistic works. This is exactly why you need to have a trademark that protects your company's intellectual property, such as your logo.

How do I trademark a brand name and logo?

1. Complete a trademark search.
2. Secure your rights.
3. Submit an initial application at uspto.gov on the Trademark Electronic Application System or TEAS.
4. Fill out the TEAS form for an initial application. Be sure to upload the file of your logo.
5. Submit an "intent-to-use" form.
6. Pay the fees.

What can you not trademark?

• Proper names or likenesses without consent from the person.
• Generic terms, phrases, or the like.
• Government symbols or insignia.
• Vulgar or disparaging words or phrases.
• The likeness of a U.S. President, former or current.
• Immoral, deceptive, or scandalous words or symbols.
• Sounds or short motifs.

How long does a trademark last?

A federal trademark lasts 10 years from the date of registration, with 10-year renewal terms. Between the fifth and sixth year after the registration date, the registrant must file an affidavit to state that the mark is still in use.

How much does it cost to trademark my logo?

What Does it Cost to Trademark a Logo? The cost to trademark a logo with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is $275–$660 as of June 2020, plus legal fees. You can register a trademark with your state for $50-$150, but federal registration offers a great deal more legal protection.

How do I register my brand name?

1. Register on the trademark office portal:
2. Trademark search:
3. Filing of trademark application:
4. Examination of trademark application:
5. Show Cause Hearing:
6. Publication of Mark in Trademark Journal:
7. Trademark registration & certification:

Can I put TM on my logo without registering?

The (TM) symbol actually has no legal meaning. You can use the symbol on any mark that your company uses without registering it. The most common use of the TM symbol is on a new phrase, logo, word, or design that a company plans to register through the USPTO.

Can I put a Nike logo on a shirt for personal use?

In fact, copyright and trademark violations can in some cases lead to criminal charges. Selling shirts with copyrighted images isn't impossible, but you should never use someone else's logos on your T-shirts or other clothing without their explicit permission.

Can you trademark a slogan?

Yes, you can trademark a slogan. It is common for businesses to use catchy slogans in their marketing and advertising. In order to secure a trademark on your slogan it must be creative enough to be distinct from other slogans and identify your good, product, or company.

What if my business name is trademarked?

You can file a lawsuit in federal court to enforce your trademark. Registration creates a legal presumption that you own the trademark and can use it for the goods and services listed in your trademark application. This is helpful if you ever need to sue someone to enforce your trademark.

What are the three types of trademarks?

What you'll learn: Arbitrary and Fanciful Trademarks. Suggestive Trademarks. Descriptive Trademarks.

How long does a trademark take to get approved?

Usually, the process takes 12 to 18 months. Registering your trademark is a complex procedure that involves your application moving through various stages. Learning about each stage in the process will help you understand why getting a trademark takes as long as it does.

Can you lose a trademark?

You can lose a trademark in a variety of ways. You can lose a mark through abandonment. A mark will be considered abandoned if you stop using it for three consecutive years and you have no intent to resume its use. You can also lose a mark through improper licensing or improper assignment.

Is there a yearly fee for a trademark?

3. Filing Declaration of Use and Application for Renewal every 10 years (Combined §8 declaration and §9 renewal): $525 per class (if filed before the grace period).

How much is it to copyright a brand name?

The basic cost to trademark a business name ranges from $225 to $600 per trademark class. This is the cost to submit your trademark application to the USPTO. The easiest and least expensive way to register your trademark is online, through the USPTO's Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS).

Should I get my logo trademarked?

Anyone whose logo identifies a business or profession should seriously consider trademark protection. Once you establish your trademark, the legal mark lasts forever. Just make sure to keep up with registration renewals at the five and ten year marks.

How do I protect my brand name?

The most common way to legally protect your brand is to register a trademark or copyright, or both, to put the entire world on notice of your claim to the exclusive rights in the registered mark or work.

Can two companies have same name?

A company applying for incorporation is also required to ensure that no identical trademark and/or domain name is already registered in the same name. While conducting availability searches for trademarks, many proposed marks get rejected because of similar existing company names.

Do I need to trademark my business name and logo?

Summary. Registering your business name for a trademark isn't required in order for you to have trademark rights. However, a registered trademark can provide greater protection for your brand while helping you build your brand and drive business growth.

Can you just put TM on anything?

You can claim a trademark on anything by using the TM Symbol, but you can't use the registered trademark symbol (R) unless you have registered the trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

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Write a comment

hi everybody i'm trademark attorney josh garvin and welcome to episode 17 of ask a trademark attorney in today's episode we're going to talk about do i need to trademark my brand name and look you're asking a trademark attorney but the answer is yes you should trademark your brand name and there's two main reasons you should do so the first is during the trademark registration process you should conduct a trademark search on your brand name to ensure you're not infringing on somebody else's brand name because if you are while you may not get sued for trademark infringement initially you may at some point in the future you could build a ton of brand equity into your name only to have to change it later on the second reason you want to trademark your brand name is for protection purposes in today's online world you need a trademark registration a federal trademark registration with the uspto to police your brand online so if you're an amazon seller you must have a federal trademark registration to get into the brand registry and many other platforms like this require a federal trademark registration on your brand name to get offending items removed this could be social media channels retail channels you name it if you have a federal trademark registration you can go to these websites and many times get infringing listings taken down without the federal trademark registration it's almost impossible to have these websites listen to you not to mention if you have a further problem and need to sue somebody in federal court having a federal registration is almost a must-have before you ever think about filing a lawsuit so there you have it should you trademark your brand name absolutely no question about it if you have any further questions please feel free to get in touch with us you can go to gerbenlaw.com just go to the contact form and get in touch with one of our attorneys right away thank you so much and i'll talk to you next time

Thanks for your comment Loyce Usher, have a nice day.
- Prudence Leuga, Staff Member

question the day here today when should you trademark your business name or your logo or your brand I'm gonna tell you just a second hey my name is Jim Hart I'm the founding attorney here at Hawthorn law and you might be wondering gem why are you sitting on the floor in front of this couch with the lighting that's awful to be perfectly honest it's because I'm in our land over them at the airport and I made this stupid terrible mistake if you've ever been to the Orlando Airport they have this atrium and you can either get a room that overlooks the atrium or you get a room that overlooks the runway typically I get a room that overlooks the runway they didn't have any available I flew in early this morning I needed a nap I just I was like I need a room fit the bullet I got this room but the lighting is not nearly as good as what I'm used to in the other room check out some my older videos and you'll see how much better the lighting is in those rooms anyway not that you really care you want to know when to trademark your logo or brand hold on a second I was talking to a client yesterday I did a I've still got some spots available for next week but I opened up a consult I greatly reduced my rate from $350 an hour to $200 an hour for a limited time to open up some half-hour slots between now and Christmas so you can get a consult with me if you need to consult for $97 I'll link to the link up here to get more information on that but anyway I was having a consult with somebody who took advantage of this offer earlier this week and one of the questions we were talking about was when they should trademark their brand or their logo or whatever this is a great question the appropriate legal answer is that you should trademark your brand name as soon as you possibly can that's not always practical there's some people that that for whatever reason because the money is tight or whatever they can't do it right away but if you've got a really good idea for a brand and you want to make sure nobody else starts stealing your intellectual property you need to get that trademark as soon as possible get that puppy trademark so that would be my official legal recommendation is to anyone who asks you need to get it done as soon as possible now there's there's a couple ways that you can go about trademarking a brand especially when you're just starting out the first way is if you're actually using it to sell products or services then you can just go ahead and file a trademark application to get a trademark immediately if you're not yet using it to sell products or services but maybe you've got it on your website and you're just kind of starting to build up a business but you haven't actually used it to sell anything yet and you've got a great idea you want to make sure nobody steals it then you can file what's called a notice of use trademark application which is it's it's the same application you just check a different box in the application and basically what happens is you go through the same process then you're given a period of time where you can start using the trademark because the trademark doesn't actually provide you any protection unless you're selling a good or service and so what you get is you get you get extra time to start selling your good or service your goods or services maybe that's a better way to say that anyway you get extra time and then if within that period of time you can either file for an extension or if you start using your trademark you file a notice that you've started using the trademark and then the trademark will register and then you're good to go from there but if not then you get an extension and you've got a couple extensions so in all I'll told you can get a couple of years to basically start using that trademark and if you don't start using the trademark then you can just abandon the application and it goes back out there into the the world is anybody else care plan for that trademark if they wanted to my advice to you is if you're looking to build a business or a brand that you really want to grow and you think that you've got a really great name that that you want to protect then you want to trademark that brand or name as soon as possible I think a great example of this was and I forget her name the woman who created Spanx she didn't tell anybody about her brand for a year for at least a year there was an interview I heard where she was talking about this I'll try and link up down below to the interview with this woman it was on a podcast and she talked about how she went through methodical steps to do everything she could to protect the brand Spanx through she filing her patent application getting the process patented and her trademark and everything else as soon as she possibly could without telling anyone about what she was doing and then when a time came for her to start selling she had it all in place that's a great example of why you need to do it early because she had a great name a great concept and she wanted to make sure it was protected I'll do another a video on all the different reasons why you should trademark your brand but I just wanted to do this video to answer those questions for those of you out that are wondering when you should do it how soon you should do it if you want to do the trademark application yourself I don't recommend it but you can do it yourself if you've got a good name that's easily too tricky I just can't talk today if you've got a good name that's easy to trademark you can probably do it for the cost of the filing fee which is around three hundred dollars if you really want some legal guidance and you want to do a search and you want to figure out if anyone else is using this trademark and you want some help doing all that you've got two choices you can either hire an attorney which this is something that we do to do this for you or you can join our DIY legal program I'll include a link up here where we do a tutorial on how to trademark your brand and how to come up with a good name and all those type of things and that's something that we're going to include in that program so so there are other ways to do it they're a little bit less expensive anyway that's it for today I hope you're having a great day I also have a free training I'm gonna link up up here if you want to watch a replay of the webinar that I did several months ago that has gotten a lot of positive reviews you can go ahead and do that that's it for today folks have a great day don't forget give us a thumbs up comment below if you've got a question you know just type trademark and let me know that you're listening that you understand what I'm saying or if you just have a comment that you want leave a comment below and ask a question that's fine we'll use that for future videos we do not answer illegal questions in YouTube comments that is a big no-no don't forget to subscribe yeah that's down here and hit the little Bell thingy and can get notified whenever we post new videos we're posting videos about once a week going forward for my DIY members I'm looking to do a Q&A call every Friday for them I don't th

Thanks Evan your participation is very much appreciated
- Prudence Leuga

About the author

Prudence Leuga

I've studied bibliographic databases at Bluffton University in Bluffton and I am an expert in space survival. I usually feel calm. My previous job was petroleum geologist I held this position for 13 years, I love talking about handball and mountain climbing. Huge fan of Patrick Swayze I practice mixed martial arts and collect butterflies.