Do i need to trademark my llc [Expert Review]

Last updated : Sept 19, 2022

Should I trademark my business name before forming my LLC?

In most cases, the best time to file a trademark application for your business name is right after you've filed paperwork to form your LLC or corporation. By doing this before your business officially launches, it protects the name for commercial use once you're up and running.

Should I include LLC in my trademark?

If you have already incorporated or formed an LLC for your business, you should register your trademark under the umbrella of the corporation or LLC. And if you are considering incorporating or forming an LLC but haven't gotten around to it yet, you should do so before registering any trademarks.

Is an LLC automatically trademarked?

LLC registrations and trademark registrations are completely separate and different things. If you register an LLC, that doesn't mean you have a trademark in that name or any real kind of trademark protection.

What happens if I don't trademark my business?

If you do not register your trademark, you will have legal rights only within the geographic areas where you operate. This means you may be able to stop a subsequent user of the mark, even if it is a bigger company, from using the mark in your geographic area only.

What should you do first LLC or trademark?

Yes, you should get an LLC first before a trademark because the trademark application will need to identify the LLC as the trademark owner. You should create an LLC or business entity before you file a trademark application.

Should I copyright or trademark my business 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.

Should you put LLC in your domain name?

No, you are not legally required to put “LLC” in the domain name for your business. In fact, if you look at most websites on the internet, the vast majority do not include a corporate designator (“ending”) in their domain name. Many consider it a little “noisy”. Meaning, it's just extra, unnecessary characters.

Why should I trademark my company name?

The number one benefit of registering a trade mark is, therefore, protection. First and foremost, it protects your brand. By registering your business name and logo, you acquire exclusive rights to use those trade marks. You can then use the registered trade mark symbol (an R in a circle) to demonstrate these rights.

Should my business and LLC have the same name?

Your LLC name does NOT have to BE your business name or MATCH your website name. Your LLC name is your company's legal entity name while your business name is your brand name to market to your customers.

Which is better trademark or LLC?

Trademarks are granted at the FEDERAL level by the USPTO and give the owner exclusive rights to their mark throughout the USA. LLC is how you form a business and trademarks are how you protect the business, brand, reputation, and recognition. Both are necessary and serve a role in your business.

Should I trademark my business logo?

Trademarks protect words, names, symbols, sounds and colors and distinguish one company's goods and products from another. Trademarking a logo not only protects it from being used by other similar companies, it also protects a company from unknowingly infringing upon an existing logo.

Do I really need to register a trademark?

Trade marks are important as they help distinguish your brand from others. This ensures your goods and services stand out from your competitors. You do not need a company to register a trade mark. However, there are benefits to registering a trade mark under a company name where the company exists.

What happens if you don't trademark your logo?

There is risk associated with building a business based on brand names or logos that you don't own. There's risk that you'll have to pay out royalties to someone else down the road. There's risk you'll have to rebrand and lose some of that brand equity you've built up.

Can I sell a product without a trademark?

You can sell products or offer services in the United States without having a registered trademark.

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.

Can you trademark before registering a business?

In the U.S., a business gets common law rights to a name as soon as it is used in commerce. That means that as soon as you start selling a product or service, you can claim common law ownership of that trademark without formally registering it with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Can I apply for a trademark myself?

Any layman who wants to register a trademark can apply himself. But when the practical applicability is considered, appointing an attorney will ease the process to register a trademark. Certain procedures are to be followed to apply for a trademark. An application is filed.

How do I make sure no one steals my business name?

Your brand is your company's identity, so it's critical to secure it with a trademark, which prevents someone from improperly using your business name or branding. To get a trademark, you'll need to file an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

How do I protect my business name and logo?

A trademark can protect the name of your business, goods, and services at a national level. Trademarks prevent others in the same (or similar) industry in the United States from using your trademarked names.

Should I trademark my logo or name?

Which One Should I Trademark? It depends. Higher value tends to lie in name recognition rather than familiarity of a logo. Since logos change more often than names, it usually makes more sense to register a standard character mark to protect the business moniker itself.

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hi everyone i'm attorney aiden durham with 180 law co in denver colorado and you're watching all up in your business on this episode of all opinion business we're going to talk about which comes first an llc or a trademark or in other words should you focus on getting a trademark before you start forming your business but before we get into it don't forget to like subscribe and share and hit that little bell button so you get notifications anytime i post a new video and don't forget to check the description for links to more information and resources you can download my free guide three tips for trademarking your brand and you can also get more information about my trademark services if you're looking for more help with getting a registered trademark for your business all right so it's probably no big secret that there are a lot of things that go into starting a business a lot of steps that need to be taken and you know a lot of to do's that need to be checked off and it can often be pretty confusing figuring out the proper order for doing all of that what do i do first do i worry about this or do i need to take care of this first lots of questions come up and a big one has to do with trademarks and whether you should focus on getting a registered trademark or applying for a trademark or if you should first start with actually forming the business because i work mostly with llcs and a lot of single member llc's i'm going to use llcs for these examples and talk about llc's but what i'm talking about really applies to any other kind of business entity not just specifically llcs so if we're talking about starting a business and we're going to operate as an llc the big question is do i form the llc first or do i file for the trademark first as with most things there's no one right answer um it always always depends on your situation your circumstances all of that um but generally speaking what i typically recommend is forming the business first getting the llc for formed first before you worry about filing the trademark application the reason for this is because the trademark is going to be owned by someone and normally we would want the llc to be the owner of the trademark because the llc is going to be the one using the trademark so let's say we file the application for the trademark first since the llc doesn't exist yet it can't be the applicant it can't be named as the owner of the trademark because it doesn't exist so in that case you as the individual or individual owners of um of the business would have to be the applicant and the owner and that's fine but if you are the owner of the trademark but then your business is going to be using it you would have to assign or transfer the trademark ownership to the business and you can't really do that while the trademark is in the application process once the trademark has been registered then it's fairly easy to transfer it from the owner to the llc um but you know it always again kind of depends on the situation so because of that that's really the main reason that we typically want to set the llc up first is so the llc exists so it can own the trademark now the little one exception that i make to this is usually with single member llc's if you're going to be the only owner um then it's not in the end it's not really a big deal if you are named as the owner of the trademark initially because then like i said once the trademark is registered you can assign or transfer that ownership to the llc um and that can be part of your member contribution to the llc is this intellectual property this trademark registration but the reason i say that specifically for single member llcs is because when there's more members more people involved it can potentially cause a problem later on if we're trying to transfer ownership or let's say there are multiple members and one of the members is named as the owner um if that member decides to you know pack up and leave or hit the road then it may not be easily possible to get that ex-member to transfer ownership of the trademark to the llc now or uh it is possible to have multiple owners of a trademark so if multiple members are the owners then it's just you know more that goes into having to make that assignment or that transfer because we're dealing with more people who have to uh agree to it now essentially so you know in the end overall it is best to start with forming the llc or getting the entity up and running and formed before you worry about filing a trademark application or pursuing trademark registration but but but the big the big thing with that is that just because we're not worrying about the trademark just yet doesn't mean we don't need to worry about the trademark just yet uh this is going to be especially important if the name of your llc is going to be the trademark is going to be the name or the brand that you're going to do business under something that often kind of gets people confused is um a business name or an llc name isn't the same as a trademark at all um you can have your llc be registered under some name and then your trademark can be something completely different you don't necessarily have to do business under the name of your llc you can use a trade name or a dba you can have different brands under an llc so if the llc name is what you're going to use as your trademark if that's going to be the trademark if that's going to be the the brand then you do want to at least do some preliminary kind of trademark clearance before you commit to a specific llc name because with llc registrations there's not going to be checks and balances like there are with trademark registrations where an examining attorney tells you you know this trademark is available and you know you can have the registration that doesn't happen with llc registration so just because you register uh the name under an llc doesn't mean that it's going to be available for you to register as a trademark so if you're in the process of setting up an llc and that llc name is what you are going to use as your trademark then at least you know do a good thorough google search uh get on the uspto's website they have the tess tess search database that you can do a pretty simple search of any registered or pending trademark applications at least get a good idea of if the name that you want to use for your llc and trademark is at least available best case scenario of course would be to have an attorney perform a full clearance search for you before you even worry about the trademark so that way we get the trademark done then we know we're in the clear for filing the trade i'm sorry we get the llc done and then we know we're in the clear for filing the trademark having said that though in the end let's say you file and form your llc and then you get around to thinking about the trademark and you find that that trademark's actually not available you won't be able to register that trademark for most states the process of amending your llc's name isn't very uh it's not very difficult it's not uh especially costly or time-consuming process so often worst case scenario if you do wan

Thanks for your comment Terrance Doggette, have a nice day.
- Sammie Commer, 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 Quentin your participation is very much appreciated
- Sammie Commer

About the author

Sammie Commer

I've studied medicinal chemistry at Johnson and Wales University in Providence and I am an expert in psychology of religion. I usually feel morose. My previous job was private sector executives I held this position for 2 years, I love talking about handball and languages. Huge fan of The Koch Brothers I practice motorsport and collect buttons.