How to trademark a design clothing [Explained]

Last updated : Aug 10, 2022

Current : 5701

How can I trademark my own design?

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

Do you have to patent clothing designs?

Clothing companies will often patent a unique design to prevent other companies from imitating it. If you hold design patent rights, you could sell or license them to a clothing company. If your apparel has unique functions to it, you could also patent those functions with a utility patent.

Should I trademark or copyright my clothing line?

So certain patterns that are original works for authorship can be and should be copyrighted. So as you see, copyright protects more of the artistic patterns and artwork designs on clothing, whereas trademarks protect the name, logo, or slogan used to identify the brand of the clothing company.

Can I sell clothes without a trademark?

Generally, you will only need a retail business license when selling clothing as there is not a specialized business license to sell trademarked goods. You must obtain permission from the trademark owner to sell their goods.

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 is a trademark?

No matter how you file, you will pay a minimum of $250 to apply for a Federal trademark. But considering the importance of your trademark, and the potential complexities you face when filing, it's not a bad idea to use a lawyer or filing service.

Can you trademark a clothing pattern?

If you have created a name and logo that appear on every pattern you make, you can file for a trademark to protect them.

How do I protect my clothing brand name?

You can protect your Clothing Brand by filing a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Trademark registration comes with exclusive legal protections for your brand, including your brand name, logo, and catchphrase.

How can I protect my designs?

There are several ways to protect your artifacts, designs, products, services and systems and these are: copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, design registration, utility patents, industrial design rights, trade dress. This page lists available ways to protect your designs, but for more details contact an IP lawyer.

How much does it cost to patent a clothing line?

The basic cost to register a trademark with the USPTO is $350 per class of goods. Depending on your brand offerings, you may need to register in multiple classes. If your brand includes both clothing and purses, for instance, you'll pay the basic application fee for both classes of goods.

How do I trademark a Tshirt design?

Register your mark nationally. Go to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website. Use the online registration system to submit your application. The system will request the name and address of the owner of the mark, a clear drawing of the mark, a description of the goods the mark identifies and the filing basis.

Can two clothing lines have the same name?

Can Two Companies Have the Same Name? Yes, however, certain requirements must be met in order for it to not constitutes trademark infringement and to determine which party is the rightful owner of the name.

How do I own my brand 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.

Can you patent a shirt design?

If you have a novel design for an article of clothing like a T-shirt, you can apply for a design patent. The patent establishes your ownership of the design and prevents others from using it during the patent period.

How do I know if a clothing name is taken?

You can search all applied-for and registered trademarks free of charge by using the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)'s Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS). If your mark includes a design element, you will have to search it by using a design code.

What are the three types of trademarks?

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

Can you lose a trademark if you don't protect it?

If you don't enforce your trademark, you risk losing reputation, business, sales, customers, and more to the infringer. There's also a concept in trademark law called abandonment. Generally, if you don't use your mark for three years or more, it's considered abandoned.

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.

How can I trademark my logo for free?

Can you trademark your logo for free? You can not register a trademark for free. However, what you can do is establish something known as a "common law trademark" for free. You can do this by simply opening for business.

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.

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Comment by Ashley Mona

everybody trademark attorney Josh gurbin I'm here to talk about how you can register a trademark for your clothing brand so there are three major steps you have to complete to get a trademark registered for your clothing brand the first is you need to conduct a full and detailed clearance search on the trademark itself the second is you have to file a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the third is you have to provide proof that you're actually selling your clothing items across state lines so let's start with the first point which is that you need to conduct a very good trademark search this is a highly overlooked item by most folks that are trying to register a clothing brand because selling clothing is a relatively easy business to get into there are more trademark applications filed for clothing brands than just about any other type of product or service with the USPTO every year this means it's an incredibly crowded space and can be difficult to get a trademark approved because there's so many other trademarks already filed somebody may have something similar to you so it's very important to know that if you go online into a trademark search yourself you're probably only going to be looking for identical matches in the software it's available online if you hire an attorney to do the search they're going to be able to look for phonetically similar marks marks that have a similar meaning marks that are even just somewhat spelled a little differently there's a lot of software tools that attorneys have that are just not out there and available for public use so while it seems extremely self-serving for me as an attorney to stand up here and say you should hire an attorney for your trademark search you should really hire a trademark attorney to help you with your trademark search they're going to be able to do a lot more than you can do yourself and hopefully save you time and money by identifying problems before you ever file a trademark application now once your search is complete the second step is to file your trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office when filing an application for a clothing brand we're typically looking at filing the application in two different classes of goods or services the first is class 25 class 25 is the category for clothing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office now very important to know here if you're drafting the application you can't just put in clothing or sports apparel you have to list the individual items that you intend to sell meaning shirts pants hats jackets that type of list the government will refuse your application initially and require further clarification if you just make a very broad claim so you have to put those individual items in there it's very important not to put too many individual items in there however because you have to prove that you're selling all of them before your trademark can actually register now the other class that many clothing brands will consider filing in is class 35 class 35 is for an online retail store that would sell clothing so if you have your XYZ brand of clothing and you're selling it from xyz.com and xyz.com is an online retail site you can also qualify protect for protection in this additional class so by filing your clothing brand application in both class 25 and class 35 you're getting about as broad of protection as you can from the United States Patent and Trademark Office now the final point here is that before your trademark registers you must have actual use in commerce of your trademark this typically means selling your clothing across state lines now sales to just your local community or local town are typically not enough because trademark rules require that you're doing business in more than one state to have a federal registration so very important that you're selling clothing in at least two different states and that your brand name or your trademark appears on the labeling or tagging for your clothing you cannot just put a trademark on the front of the shirt or the front of a hat and call that a trademark use the government will see that type of specimen when you have to submit it and tell you that's not a trademark use and you can't have your trademark they want to see it on a tag so think of a neck tag a hang tag even a label that are sticker that goes on the clothing itself something that's a branded use of your trademark to show folks that when they're buying your goods they're buying that particular brand of goods so if you have any questions on that requirement just go buy a Nike shirt off the rack Sports Authority you're gonna see all the Hang tags and labels that say Nike on it in addition to maybe Nike across the front but it's going to have Nike and all those branded locations as well so I hope you found this video helpful as a quick recap if you're trying to register a clothing brand there's three critical things you're gonna have to do one is a really good trademark search - you got to file a trademark application in class 25 with the USPTO and potentially class 35 as well if you have an online retail store and final you're gonna have to prove that you're selling goods across state lines using your trademark on tags or labels for your clothing I hope this video was helpful to you if you have any further questions and would like assistance with your trademark feel free to get in touch with us

Thanks for your comment Ashley Mona, have a nice day.
- Ethelene Sooter, Staff Member

Comment by RidoD

hi everyone I'm attorney Aiden Durham with 180 la Co in Denver Colorado and welcome back to all up in your business in this episode of all up in your business I'm gonna talk about some things that people commonly think are trademarks but which are actually not trademarks and specifically I'm going to talk about this in the context of clothing designers and clothing apparel companies but before we get into it please be sure to LIKE subscribe and share and don't forget to check the description for some links to additional information and resources too I would also like to thank our very special partners for this episode our friends over at Surf shark this by the way is a trademark surf shark is a VPN or virtual private network provider that goes far beyond what you would typically expect from a normal VPN service provider I'm sure you've heard me talk about VPNs before and how important they are especially for business owners when it comes to protecting data and our internet security and the security of our clients and customers data as well of course VPNs help to protect your privacy and they can help you get around internet blocks in certain countries I use a VPN last year while I was traveling through China for a couple of weeks and it was the only way that I could access any of my Google products Gmail YouTube any of that I also love using a VPN when I'm planning my vacations and you'll know I love a good vacation did you guys know that Airlines and travel websites will give different prices depending on the location where you're searching it's true so with a VPN like surf shark you can price compare and shop these different providers in different countries to make sure you're getting the best prices on airfare and other travel but my absolute favorite thing about surf shark VPN is that it allows you to access shows from Netflix and other streaming services that aren't available here in the US I for example loved binge watching Brooklyn nine-nine but Netflix in the US doesn't have Brooklyn nine-nine you can't get it here so all I have to do is fire up the surf shark app my Smart TV connect to a server in the UK or in Canada where they do give you Brooklyn nine-nine and then refresh my Netflix connection and voila I can now watch Brooklyn nine-nine as well as all the other shows and content that isn't all available in the u.s. so visit surf shark deals slash a UI YB and use the promo code a UI YB to save 83% off of your subscription and get three months free surf shark has a 30 day money-back guarantee so there really is no reason to hesitate on signing up today don't forget that's surf shark dot deals /a UI YB and use the promo code a UI YB as in all opinio business to save eighty-three percent and get three months free with surf shock VPN alright let's get this party started so before I tell you about things that are not a trademark a little quick background on what is a trademark a trademark is a word phrase symbol design etc that is used to signify the source of a product or service a trade mark is a mark that is used in trade in other words in a business to identify and distinguish that business's goods or services from those of another company or their competitors so the important part there is that say mark used in trade a few examples of trademarks the surf shark name and logo as we already discussed when we fire up our surf shark app or visit the website we see that name and we see that logo and we know that what we're purchasing is coming from this source surf shark Nike this is a very well-known trademark when we see this little swoosh on the front of a piece of clothing or on the side of a shoe or some other article of clothing we know that this item came from Nike and this lovely Tiffany blue box yes that's right Tiffany's has a trademark but not just on named Tiffany's also on the color blue and the blue box itself when we receive a very special gift from that special someone and it's handed to us in this lovely blue bag and we see this beautiful blue box we know this most likely came from Tiffany's unless our boyfriends trying to pull a fast one on us and is just tricking us but most likely these came from Tiffany's and that's what we're about to guess so those are all trademarks they are marks which tell us where we got these products or services from so then what's not a trademark the most common thing that I see where people getting confused about if this is or not a trademark is when it comes to clothing companies and clothing designs so here's a common conversation that I will have hi Aiden I created this really awesome design that I want to put on the front of t-shirts and sell because I think everyone else is going to love this design that I created and I want to put it on shirts but before I start selling it I want to get it trademarked so it's protected and so other people can't steal my design nope sorry that's not a trademark you can't just create a design stick it on the front of a shirt and call it a trademark that's not how this works so special shout out to my friend at Timberlake law on Twitter if you don't follow him you should his Twitter feed is full of fun interesting and sometimes mind-blowing or mind-boggling trademark examples and most of these that I'm about to talk to I got from him so here's a fun one this application for this trademark was recently filed they are seeking registration of this trademark in class zero to five for various types of clothing and apparel this is the specimen that was submitted with the trademark application remember the point of the specimen is that it's supposed to show how the trademark is being used in commerce in connection with the sale of those goods or services this specimen simply shows us that there an image that's appearing on the front of a shirt this use putting this image on the front of a shirt or on the front of a sweatshirt or any other product doesn't tell us where that product came from it doesn't tell us anything about the source of that product it's really just a design that we're sticking on a shirt and unfortunately that's not a trademark it's a design that's being used as decoration on the product it's not being used as a source indicator for the product and this type of trademark is most commonly referred to as ornamental and trademarks which are merely ornamental are not trademarks at all ornamental trademarks don't actually function as a trademark instead they are merely decorative features of the product rather than indicating the source of the product I like to think about it this way if someone's going to buy your product because the design appears on it then it's probably ornamental and not actually a trademark this goes for things like photos drawings designs phrases that you might stick on the front of a t-shirt or stick them on the side of a coffee mug or put them on some stickers people are buying it because they like the design itself and that does not make it a trademark compare that to an actual trademark where the design or the image the logo the phrase might appear on the garment tag on the inside of the shirt or on the care

Thanks RidoD your participation is very much appreciated
- Ethelene Sooter

About the author

Ethelene Sooter

I've studied tourism geography at Assumption College in Worcester and I am an expert in military geography. I usually feel anxious. My previous job was cost estimator I held this position for 7 years, I love talking about birdwatching and quoits. Huge fan of Arnold Palmer I practice rope jumping and collect cracker jack prizes.

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