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Written by : Fonda Ferrante |
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you've seen the tm and you've seen the sm so what's the difference between the tm and the sm and why should you care hey everybody my name is marcela dominguez and if you are new here i help small and medium sized companies protect their brands online and offline which i have been doing for a pretty long time now if you're interested in seeing the long list of wonderful people i have worked with make sure that you head to marcella tm.com but in today's video i want to explain to you what in the world is the difference between the sm and the tm so if you haven't watched this video already make sure that you stop and you watch this video first because this one will give you a wonderful overview of what the tm the sm and the circle are actually mean but this video is going to be a little bit more focused on tm and sm specifically so i know that you all have seen the sm so what does the sm mean it means service mark i know you've seen the tm what is the tm mean it means trade mark so service mark is actually a placeholder this sm right here is a placeholder for service based businesses that have not yet protected their logo slogan tagline or business name with the circle are so the sm is the placeholder that they can use until they obtain a registered trademark certificate or if they are not actively seeking one it puts other people on notice that they are actively using this name in conjunction with services so can i give you an example well sure i can let's say that you are in the business of providing software as a service let's say that you are a legal professional offering legal services let's say you're a doctor who offers medical services let's say you're a hospital or a clinic or a chiropractor or a dentist all of those are services right and so you would be protecting your logo your business name your tagline any of that with a service mark so if you have not registered the trademark then you would be using the sm symbol so would you still use the sm symbol even if you have submitted an application well yes even if you submitted an application you would still use the sm why well you haven't received a registered trademark certificate yet have you if you have received a registered trademark certificate then it is okay to use the circle r but if you have not and you have already submitted your application and you are still waiting then you still have to use an sm if you are a service based business and the benefit is you're putting other people on notice that you are using this name so again it's a placeholder it's kind of like telling people hey i'm here and i'm using this name so don't use it now a trademark is very very similar a trademark is a placeholder as well in the same way that an sm is putting people on notice for your service based business atm is putting people on notice that you are using this trademark but it is in association with the sale of goods or products so let's say that i have a shopify store a wig store woocommerce store and i am selling kids products which by the way i do at stowyjoey.com then that would mean that i can use uh the tm in conjunction with my name my logo my slogan my tagline if i have not yet registered it because i am in the business of selling goods of selling products now if you also sell shampoo watches eyelash curlers tank tops lamps couches rugs then you would also be using the tm because those are goods those are physical products so using the tm would put people on notice that you are using a particular trademark and you are basically claiming it up until the time that it becomes a registered trademark now using an sm or a tm doesn't necessarily signal to anybody that you are in pursuit of a registered trademark does using the sm or the tm tell people that you are going to pursue it in the future no it doesn't using these is only a placeholder and you can only read into it in so far so don't read into it if you see a tm or an sm don't assume that they're pursuing a registered trademark because that is not always the case but it is the case that they are trying to put people on notice that they are using this trademark even though they may or may not be actively pursuing a registered trademark so if you learn more than you knew before you started watching make sure that you give me a thumbs up and make sure to watch this video right here which will be very beneficial to you if you are just starting your trademark journey make sure that you grab my free trademark gt down below and if you need some trademark resources make sure you also visit the diy legal shop down below
Thanks for your comment Michale Hufft, have a nice day.
- Fonda Ferrante, Staff Member
hi I'm Andre Mincha of the founder and CEO of trademark factory and in this video I'm gonna talk about dividing a USPTO trademark application in this video I will first explain what division of a trademark application is and then I'll explain why you would want to do that when you file a trademark application that covers multiple products and services maybe even multiple classes of goods and services and you got varying results as to register ability of your brand for all of those products and services you may want to divide your trademark application into two so that some of them which are ready to be registered go and get register so you can get your trademark registration certificate and the rest of them will remain pending as an application there are two reasons why you'd want to do that the first reason is when your trademark application was allowed for all products and services but your problem is that you're only using that trademark for some of those products and services it's not all of them and in the US your trademark won't register until you started using it for all products and services listed in your trademark application so if you really want to get that certificate for at least something the solution would be to divide your application to put all the goods and services that you're already using into one application get that one registered and keep the other one pending until you can file a statement of use showing that you've already commenced using that trademark for the remaining products and services the other reason why do you want to divide a trademark application in the u.s. would be if you filed your application and the trademarks office found something they don't like about it they issued an office action that lists objections to your trademark application and their objections don't cover everything they cover something they cover specific products and services that maybe are too descriptive or they're too confusingly similar to some other brand or they're some other reason but again their objections only relate to specific products and services so you may want to divide your trademark application so that the problematic products and services remain in one trademark application and everything else that's good to go will be subject of a separate trademark application so that would be approved and that will be then allowed and registered so those are the strategies so there's one more thing that I should mention you should be very strategic about defining your trademark application in both these scenarios for example if you are not planning to start using your trademark for all of those products and services in the nearest future maybe there is no point in dividing your trademark application into the products that you already using and those that you're you haven't started because if you're not planning to start using them it's easier to just delete those unused products and services from your existing trademark application let that one register and say goodbye to the ones that you thought you'd start using but decided not to same idea for the problematic scenario when you've got an office action against some products and services if you're not planning to respond to that office section if you don't have a good argument if you don't want to bother you know with arguments can to convince the trademarks office why those other products and services should go through again it's easier to just remove them from your trademark application and the ones that the trademarks office was okay with they will be approved right away so again be very strategic and understanding why you're dividing the the purpose of division is to get something through and let the rest remain on a pending trademark application again that you're plenty to do something with if you liked this video great because I've recorded over a hundred of them and this is just one of many short videos where I'm providing short specific no BS answers to your questions trademarks so subscribe now and be the first and get notified whenever the next video goes live if you've got a brand that you want to protect fill out the form at free TM Sarge com free TM search calm and we'll help you protect it I'll see you in the next video you [Applause]
Thanks Andrew your participation is very much appreciated
- Fonda Ferrante
About the author
I've studied family systems theory at Barnard College in New York City and I am an expert in print journalism. I usually feel shocked. My previous job was chemical engineer I held this position for 26 years, I love talking about racquetball and antiques. Huge fan of G-Eazy I practice snooker and collect fossils.
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