How to fill out trademark application [Expert Approved]

Last updated : Aug 27, 2022

What is example of trademark?

Brand names like Apple, McDonald's, and Dolce & Gabbana. Product names like iPod and Big Mac. Company logos like the golden arches at McDonald's and NBC's peacock logo.

What is a good specimen for trademark?

An acceptable specimen must: Be a real example of how you use your trademark in commerce in providing your goods or services (not a mock up, printer's proof, digitally altered image, rendering of intended packaging, or draft of a website that shows how your mark might appear).

What is the trademark application process?

Application Process means the process of reviewing, evaluating and making a decision on a Completed Application.

How do I file a trademark in USA?

1. Set up a USPTO.gov account. To access the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS), you need to log in to a USPTO.gov account with two-step authentication.
2. Trademark application.
3. Monitoring application status.
4. Applicant address and email address.

What is the most common reason that a trademark might be rejected?

Likelihood of confusion is the most common reason an application will be rejected by the USPTO. Essentially, if there is a high probability that the general public will confuse your trademark with someone else's (already existing) trademark, your registration will not be granted. The two marks need not be identical.

What are 3 items that can be trademarked?

Non-generic words, logos, slogans, colors, smells, and sounds can all be registered with the USPTO, as long as you can demonstrate how they represent your business. Inventions and works of authorship cannot become registered trademarks and should be protected with patents or copyrights respectively.

How much does it cost to register a trademark?

The cost of registration per application is about Rs. 4000. If any person is registering its brand or register logo under many categories, then he/she have to pay Rs. 4000 per category.

How many specimens are needed for a trademark?

Specimens for Trademarks One specimen is required for each International Classification identified in the trademark application. The USPTO will consider possible acceptable customs of a particular industry when determining if the specimen is acceptable.

Do you need a specimen for trademark application?

Specimens as evidence of use of the trademark. You must provide a specimen to register your trademark with a use-in-commerce filing basis. A specimen shows how you actually use your trademark in commerce with the goods or services you identified in your application. It's proof of what consumers see in the marketplace.

How long is a trademark good for?

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.

Is it hard to file a trademark?

Filing a trademark application is complex and time-consuming and requires a knowledgeable person to ensure the paperwork is completed properly. It is important to understand trademark law to avoid making common trademark mistakes during the trademark registration process.

What are the five steps in registering a trademark?

1. Think of a trademark that identifies with the goods you are offering or that is unique.
2. Search the USPTO trademark database.
3. File your application with the USPTO.
4. Pay the processing fee.
5. Keep track of the application process.

What Cannot be used as a trademark?

However, you can't trademark: Proper names or likenesses without consent from the person. Generic terms, phrases, or the like. Government symbols or insignia.

What percentage of trademark applications are rejected?

Absolutely. According to the USPTO, approximately 18% of applications failed during first action in 2016. When you think about it, that number is quite shocking. It means nearly 1-in-5 trademark applications were refused.

How often do trademarks get denied?

But not so fast — according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), about 18% of applications are rejected. To avoid having your trademark application rejected, it's worth spending some time studying why applications are denied so you won't make the same mistakes.

Can you trademark one word?

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. The word “trademark” can refer to both trademarks and service marks.

Can I trademark my name?

You can trademark your name if it has business or commercial value. Trademarking your name gives you an additional brand and keeps others from using your name. To trademark your name you must meet specific requirements with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Can you trademark a common name?

“Can you trademark a name” is a common question. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office can register an individual's name as a part of a trademark; however, it only grants protection to names that are extensively utilized in commerce or ones that are distinctive.

What are the documents required for trademark registration?

• Copy of Logo (Optional)
• Signed Form-48.
• Udyog Aadhar Registration Certificate.
• Incorporation Certificate or Partnership Deed.
• Identity Proof of Signatory.
• Address Proof of Signatory.

How long does a trademark registration take?

Ans: Trademark Registration is a lengthy process and it takes around 18-24 months to obtain registration in a straight-forward case, without any objections or oppositions. However, the trademark application number is usually issued within one or 2 days after filing.

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this is Traverse legal PLC trademark attorney Brian Hall and today I'm going to walk you through on a step by step basis how to register for a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office the first thing you need to do is go to the website wws PTO govt once there you will see this screen the next thing you need to do is click on trademarks this will bring you to a page that gives you many options and multiple pieces of information that relate to your trademark if you have questions you'd be well-served reviewing this website and getting as much information as possible about it if you scroll down you see a box that's called te a s which refers to the trademark electronic application system this is where you can file forms online including a trademark application once you click that it takes you to the actual TE a s or T's system here again you can find valuable information that will help you along the process of registering your trademark with the USPTO however I'm going to give you that step-by-step guide right now the first thing you do is click on the initial application form once you click there it gives you information related to the different kinds of applications that you can file the first one is most likely the one that you will be applying for it is a trademark or service Marc application on the principal register while there's another option for the trademark or service Marc application on the Supplemental register more often than not you are going to start by attempting to get your mark registered with the principal register which is reserved for marks that are not merely descriptive but instead are in fact distinctive trademarks or service marks once you click on that you will see that there are different options for how you can file online the first is the T's plus form which is $275 non-refundable filing fee that goes directly to the USPTO the second option is the tea's form which is a $325 option the difference between the two is outlined in the language here simply put the T's plus form requires that you provide enough information that does not require the USPTO to complete the application for you which is why it's cheaper I suggest that you start with the T's plus form especially if you've consulted with the trademark attorney or walking through this on a step by step basis with me here today so once you select that and continue again there is a lot of information related to what you need to do the first step is to determine whether or not an attorney's filing this application since I'm walking you through this and you're filing it on your own an attorney is likely not filing this application while I'm giving you a step by step guide I am NOT your attorney and I do not represent you unless you contact me and my firm and retain me to do so so you would click no an attorney is not filing this application and then you can press the continue button this is where you get it an informational message that tells you what kind of requirements you need for your web-browser if you've made it this far you're likely okay and you can close that box the first screen requires applicant information and this pertains to who you are as the owner of that particular trademark this is where you put information that relates to you or your business so if in fact you as an individual are filing you would put your first and last name and middle initial here last name first followed by first name and then middle initial my name is Brian a Hall and this is what I would put if I were filing for this individually I would then come down to the entity type and select individual and it requires that you select a country of citizenship now the thing that's important for you to recognize here is that the owner of the mark will be the person that is displayed as the reg of the trademark once it's registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office it needs to reflect actual ownership of the mark and what's important to recognize is that if you select an individual owner you as the individual may be held liable on for trademark infringement this risk of personal liability oftentimes leads people to form some sort of corporate entity to provide themselves with a liability shield other times people select a different entity such as a corporation or LLC because in fact the trademark is indeed owned by that entity it is important for you to consult with an attorney if you have questions relating to who should be the owner of the trademark as you scroll down it asks for additional information such as your address I am inputting the address of my law firm it asks for the city we're in which you are located it asks for the state your zip code and the phone number fax number are not required you can see next to both of these there's not this small asterisk if if the asterisk is not there it means that you do not need to provide this information you should recognize that anything you put into this application becomes public record and can be searched and found by anybody out there as such you need to make a determination whether or not you want that information publicly available what is next required is indeed a valid email address and if you wish you can check this box that gives the USPTO authorization to communicate with you via email as opposed to in writing in regular PO stage mail if in fact you are someone that regularly checks your email I would recommend that you use the email option after you've completed that information once again all the information that's required as indicated by the asterisk you can go to the next screen now this warning screen is something that is typical and what it's saying is that a telephone number has not been entered and it gives you that information that I just talked about namely that it's optional if you would like to include it you can go back and include it if you'd like to move forward you can continue on this next screen is where you're going to input information related to your actual trademark or service mark and just so we're speaking the same language the trademark is merely a mark that refers to a good where as a service mark refers to a service under law they are essentially treated the same way so on this screen you can enter your mark and this is where you need to put exactly the mark that you want to seek protection for I'm going to use the example of mark and this is where it's important for you to recognize the different kinds of marks that are available the first is what's known as a standard characters mark and this in particular is protecting only the characters or the word or term itself if you want protection for something beyond that you can select what's known as a special form stylized and or design mark and that will change the form and require that you add additional information and the difference between a standard character mark and a specialized form mark is that the specialized form mark has a logo component or some specific design to which you want to protect above and beyond the actual characters are terms that are associated with a standard character mark so sim

Thanks for your comment Paulita Lusane, have a nice day.
- Katharyn Tunks, Staff Member

hey this is attorney elizabeth potts weinstein and today we're going to talk about how to file your own trademark application with the united states patent and trademark office including a step-by-step tutorial of exactly how to do it on the uspto.gov website in this video i'm assuming that you already have most of the stuff put together for your trademark application and you're ready to go if you don't have that stuff done check out this playlist and you will get all the step-by-step bits of informations and decisions you need to have already done before you get started with your filing so the first thing to do is to go to the uspto.gov website here we have the website for uspto.gov united states patent and trademark office if you go under trademarks you can go to apply online under apply online are a bunch of different categories for forms now if you're just filing for the first time you're going to be doing the initial application form but there's also all the other forms are accessible here so if you need to respond to something from the trademark office file your intent to use forms which i will talk about later change your address any of that kind of stuff you can find those forms here so you're gonna go to initial application forms now with the united states patented trademark office there's one online application system but you have two different categories of filings one is the plus and the other is the standard there's a number of differences between them but the biggest difference besides one of them being less expensive than the other is that with the plus you have to select from a list of classes and with the standard you can make up your own class or description of your products and services i highly recommend that if it's at all possible you select the plus not just to save money but because if you are picking your class from a list of classes you're going to have formatted it correctly and also will make it much faster and easier for them to approve your application the only time we really use this standard is if what my client is doing we just can't find anything on the list that is even remotely applicable or we're applying the united states basing it upon a foreign application from another country and their descriptions are so different we want to use their descriptions here in this filing to the extent possible there are also additional statements that are required in the plus application that you must make at the time of application the ones that typically come up the most are the name of a living person or that your trademark includes reference to a specific geographic area so i can file a trademark with my name in it however i have to give permission to myself to file that application so this is something to be aware of if you're doing a plus application this list also applies to you not just the class selection so let's say we're ready to apply so we're going to start the application the next thing you're going to need to do is to log in if you don't have a login and email for the uspto.gov then you can create one otherwise you need to log in with you log with an email address a password they also have a second level of authentication the next screen you come to is the beginning of the application there is a video that you can watch i recommend doing that because it's always great to get more information and this is a dynamic application so when you select things it will change what the next questions are also be aware that if you have inactivity it will log you out you can save your session though and come back to it later and that's what this is about if you save your session then you have to upload a file to create it back in so here i'm going to pretend that i'm not an attorney filing the application i'm going to pretend that i'm doing this myself and i'm gonna pretend i'm doing a t e t e a s plus application so the first screen is who is the owner of this trademark now if you are a sole proprietorship then or you're filing as an individual inventor then it will be you but if you have an llc or a corporation it'll probably belong to that business instead of you personally so let's say my i have a llc called potsfeinstein llc and that's going to be the owner of the mark then i click limited liability company for the entity type and it's going to change what some of these questions are so it will take a minute to load now i have to select what state it's in or if it's not in the u.s then you select this sometimes i run into an issue where someone has a business that's from another country and so they so their entities are have different names but the trademark office does have places for you to put that information to now we're going to put the mailing address main street this is a made up address well it might actually exist but that's not my address okay now domicile address this is something that's very important for anybody who is using their mailing address that's not your physical location you have to have a physical location address in here this physical location address will not appear on the publicly available database so you don't have to worry about that from a privacy perspective but you have to have an address so they know that you're physically located here in the united states if you are not physically located here in the united states then you're gonna have to have an attorney who's located here to represent you i don't necessarily think that rule is fair but that's just the rule so let's assume that this is actually my physical location you can put in a phone number and fax number you don't have to put in a phone number but sometimes the trademark examiner will call you because you messed up something your application that is relatively straightforward to fix so if you don't put a phone number in here there's nobody they can call they might email you but some examiners are not into email otherwise they'll have to issue an office action which is a lot more complicated so i'm going to put in an email address this is my business email address you can also put in the website for your business i recommend doing this so when they do a search and you come up for your own trademark they know that it's you so i'm gonna put in my website address then i hit continue it's going to look at everything i filled out and give me information about things that i missed or i messed up in the filing so it tells me that i did not enter a telephone number i'm just going to skip it for right now but generally i'd recommend putting in one it does not get listed publicly so you don't have to worry about that now i can finally put in my trademark so i'm going to use the trademark that we talked about in one of the other videos which is irene whoops i on the trail this is a person who has a business about hiking irene is not this person's name irene they're using as an abstract concept now here's special standard characters special form sound mark those are the different kinds of trademarks so a special form a lot of times would be a logo i'm not going to go into sound marks that's fairly rare for someone to do but th

Thanks galiotte01j your participation is very much appreciated
- Katharyn Tunks

About the author

Katharyn Tunks

I've studied futures studies at Baker University in Baldwin City and I am an expert in social control. I usually feel melancholy. My previous job was publications editor I held this position for 13 years, I love talking about model building and antiquing. Huge fan of Rebel Wilson I practice cycling: mountain bike) and collect football cards.