Do you trademark your name [New Data]



Last updated : Aug 19, 2022
Written by : Richie Oshinsky
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Do you trademark your name

Should you trademark your own name?

So establishing ownership of and rights to a business name is an important step for businesses that want to ensure a name remains one-of-a-kind. Registering a trademark helps protect a name or brand from intellectual property theft or misuse as a business grows.

Should I trademark my name or logo?

For this reason, you should apply for both trademark registrations if you have a business name and a logo you wish to protect. Wordmarks and design marks represent two very different aspects of your brand. Protecting just your name may not sufficiently protect your logo from being used by someone else.

Can a person's name be trademarked?

To be protected as a trademark, a personal name must be used as a trademark—the name must be used as a source identifier, to distinguish the goods or services of a particular source.

What does it mean if you trademark a name?

According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a trademark is “a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of the others.” It's a legal protection you can use to take legal action against an entity if they're ...

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.

What names 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.

What are the 3 types of trademarks?

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

Should I get a trademark or LLC first?

4. Should you get an LLC first 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.

How do I trademark a name for free?

You can not register a trademark for free. However, you can establish something known as a "common law trademark" for free, simply by opening for business. The benefit of relying on common law trademark rights is that it's free, and you don't need to do any specific work filling out forms, etc.

What is the purpose of a trademark?

A trademark: Identifies the source of your goods or services. Provides legal protection for your brand. Helps you guard against counterfeiting and fraud.

Can you trademark yourself?

Yes, you can trademark yourself, as long as you are in connection with your products or services. This information was provided by our founding attorney, Xavier Morales, Esq. It is possible for an individual to trademark an image of themselves as a product's logo.

How hard is it to trademark a name?

Registering a trademark for a company name is pretty straightforward. Many businesses can file an application online in less than 90 minutes, without a lawyer's help. The simplest way to register is on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Web site, www.uspto.gov.

What can I do with a trademark?

A trademark protects a good or service offered by a company from infringement or damage of reputation by another company. With a trademark, you have legal recourse to sue another company that uses your likeness to further their own business ventures. This includes both registered and unregistered trademarks.

What does it cost to copyright a 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).

How do I copyright my personal name?

How do you trademark a name? You can file an application to register your trademark online. Your application must specify the goods or services associated with your name, and your trademark will extend only to those goods or services.

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.

How long does it take to trademark a name?

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.

What are some 5 examples of trademarks?

  • Under Armour®
  • Twitter®
  • It's finger lickin' good! ®
  • Just do it®
  • America runs on Dunkin'®

What is a good trademark?

A trademark must be a mark which includes a device, heading, brand, label, ticket, signature, word, letter, name, numeral, packaging or combination of colors or any combination of the above attributes. It should be easy to speak and spell. A good trademark is such that the public can easily spell and speak.

Who should own a trademark?

The party who controls the nature and quality of the goods and services used in connection with the brand should be the trademark owner. This is an important decision and naming the proper owner for purposes of registration is critical to maintaining a valid trademark.


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Do you trademark your name


Comment by Buddy Heddlesten

hey everybody we are talking all about how to trademark your personal name today and when it makes sense to do that so let's get started i'm nicole schwartz i'm an attorney for women business owners so i help women to protect their businesses and their brands with trademarks and this is my puppy russ and she's gonna be snuggling with us today so we're talking about trademarks and the trademark is the exclusive right to use your brand name so this is really important when you're a small business because you want to make sure that nobody else can copy you nobody else can use the exact same brand name as you and you also want to make sure that it's available and that nobody else trademarks it before you so the trademark like i was saying and make sure that you're the only one who can use that brand name to sell what you sell so for example my brand name is sprout law so i'm the only one who can use sprout law or sprout you know any variation of that to provide legal services or you know lululemon is the only brand that can use the name lululemon or anything similar to sell yoga pants and apparel and whatever else they sell so it's kind of how it works and you want to make sure when you're building a business and when you're building a brand that you're actually able to use it and that you know nobody else can copy you so that's why the trademark is so important and it makes sense you know when you're when you have a brand name when you have a logo and you have a tagline product names hashtags there's a lot of different things that you can trademark and you can also trademark your personal name and this makes sense if you know your business is your personal name if you go by your personal name in your business um and so you know you can think about it like nobody's ever going to be able to stop you from using your personal name like in a personal capacity like nobody can say like you're not allowed to be called that by your friends anymore or like change your legal name like nobody's gonna force you in that way but they can say like you're not allowed to um sell you know apparel with your personal name or you're not allowed to sell um you know photography services with your personal name um if somebody else has a trademark for that so you think about it like um you know like kylie jenner or like you know any of these celebrities like they have trademarks on their personal name and you know a lot of celebrities do that because they're well known but it also makes sense if that is your business name as well because as your business grows and as your business becomes well known um you know if that's your business name you want to make sure that nobody else is going to be able to you know come out with the exact same name as you because then there's two of you it gets really confusing um if we're trying to figure out like which britney johnson does photography um which brittany johnson do i want you know it's tricky so um that's why it makes sense to protect a personal name and they i've noticed that they are um they're taking less than brand names like so to me like a personal name it's not as important to protect as a you know another type of brand name um like sprout law for example or you know just like thinking about like a regular business name like nike or starbucks or whatever um personal names to me like i don't see them come up as often um i don't trademark them as often um i don't i don't see people trademarking them as often but they do they are trademarking them a lot so um to me it's like it's still important but um there's maybe like a little bit of room to like not protect it there too if it was my personal name and i was building a business off of it i personally would protect it um just because like i've been through the process of having to read brand before i've been through the process of having copycats before and it's frustrating on both ends so i want to make sure i'm not in that position um but that's just me personally so the process to protect your personal name is the same as you protect any other kind of trademark so you're going to start with a trademark search to make sure that the brand name is actually available uh make sure that your personal name is available because there are a lot of trademarks out there already so there are a lot of people who have already trademarked their personal name um to sell certain things and so um you want to make sure that it's actually available then you will file the trademark um it takes them about three months to review it and then according to the trademark they uh the trademark office they deny it most of the time so you're gonna wait three months and then 84 percent of the time it gets denied and there's a lot of different reasons why it gets denied um it can be denied as too similar to somebody else or you know maybe you didn't file the application correctly things like that and so we usually go back and forth with the trademark office for another like a month to two months um to make changes or submit legal arguments stuff like that um to get the application approved and then assuming that the trademark office approves it then it goes to publication so they put it on a website for 30 days and that gives other people a chance to object if they feel like it's too similar to their brand so they're not going to notify anybody or anything like that but people are monitoring this trademark website and so um people can object and if anybody objects in you'll negotiate with them otherwise the application gets approved if you've already been using the brand that it's going to be approved if you're haven't started using it yet that's okay too they're going to conditionally approve it and then they'll give you some time to start using it so it's kind of how the process works um like i was saying it it usually takes um some time so it's kind of a long process but it's definitely worth it if you are building a brand and a personal brand that you really want to protect and you want to be able to use for a long time so if you have any questions about protecting your personal brand feel free to pop them in the comments below and if you want to learn more about the trademark process we have a free webinar that's going to walk you through the entire process step by step all the little details in between all the tips and tricks um how you know how the process works how long it takes how much it costs when it makes sense all that kind of stuff so feel free to sign up um below as well and i will talk to you guys soon


Thanks for your comment Buddy Heddlesten, have a nice day.
- Richie Oshinsky, Staff Member


Comment by Wayne

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 Wayne your participation is very much appreciated
- Richie Oshinsky


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