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Written by : Kieth Teachout |
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hi everyone I'm attorney aid in Durham with 180 lock Oh in Denver Colorado and you're watching all up in your business in this episode of all up in your business we're going to talk about the steps to take to trademark a name a business name or a product or service name and these steps are also going to apply to trademarking a logo but there are a few little differences if you're doing a logo versus trying to trademark a name but first before we get into it huge announcement coming at you March 4th is brandish DIY your trademark application during this one-hour webinar and mini workshop I'm going to teach you step by step how to prepare for complete and submit a trademark application without a lawyer and registration opens soon so if you want to learn the exact steps to take to file a trademark application without a lawyer check the description below for a link to get on the waitlist and to get some special early bird discount opportunities - all right let's talk about how to trademark a name the first step before you go trade marking anything is make sure it's something that's worth trademarking what makes a name more or less worth trade marking it really depends on how strong or weak it is a weak trademark is one that is more generic or common or descriptive versus a strong trademark which is something that's very arbitrary or very distinctive very creative and so the stronger your trademark is the stronger the trademark registration is going to be so if you have a really weak trademark something that typically makes it weak is if it's very descriptive of your goods or your services or if it's primarily your last name something like that makes a trademark on the weaker side and with a weak trademark if you register it all you have is a registered weak trademark and your trademark rights will ruffle to that if you have a weak generic trademark name your rights to enforce that trademark are gonna be somewhat limited and weaker versus if you have a very arbitrary name that's a stronger trademark then your registered trademark rights are gonna be a lot stronger to a few examples of very strong trademarks are like Google Google wasn't even a word until Google came out and created it so any like brand new word or creating a new word creating a new sound combining words to create something new that's the best thing you can do is create a brand new word or a brand new trademark that no one's ever seen before that's gonna make it stronger versus a weaker trademark so if we've decided that it's worth pursuing a trademark registration the next thing we want to do is make sure it's available to even register and use in the US a good first place to start with searching for your trademark availability is of course Google or your favorite search engine type in the trademark that you're looking to register and see what comes up if there's a bunch of other business listings for similar types of products or services if the exact trademark that you want comes up a lot or if there are a lot of similar variations then that might be a little red flag that maybe this trademark has already taken or if it's not taken necessarily registered if there's a lot of competition with that trademark that's going to affect how strong and distinctive your trademark is so if you're seeing a lot of similar variations of your trademark or identical trademarks then you might want to think about how that will impact your registration and then after doing a Google search you can also do a search on the Whois database to see what kind of domain name registrations already exists that incorporate your trademark or something similar to it and then the USP tío has a really good search database available - this allows you to search for pending trademark applications and registered trademarks that might be identical or similar to yours so if you go to the USPTO s website its uspto.gov and you'll navigate to their tests tes s system and this is where you're gonna do that search and you'll usually be able to do just a basic word search for your name now this is where the difference comes in if you're trying to trademark a logo then you'll want to do a design search which is a bit more complicated than just a basic word search so here you can type in the trademark name that you're wanting to use for this example I'm gonna type in all up in your business and then we'll see what comes up so let's say you were wanting to register your trademark all up in your business for your local ice cream shop we see here there is an active live registration for all up in yo business so what's important to note if you do find trademarks that are identical to yours or kind of similar to yours pay attention also to the goods or services that are associated with that registration there are two things primarily that go into trademark applications and trademark registrations the first is the similarity of the trademark itself the second is the similarity of the goods or services so if I'm opening an ice cream shop called all opinio business this current all up in your business registration is for like legal services and things that have absolutely nothing to do with ice cream or ice cream shops so with this finding I am relatively safe feeling like I can proceed with my application because there aren't any that are so similar in trademark and in the goods and services that it's likely it'll get through but if you do find something in the database that is kind of similar to your trademark and goods or services are somewhat related or if they're identical then again that's a red flag that you're going to want to take into consideration and maybe go back to the drawing board because if someone else already has that trademark registered in a very related category of goods or services that's going to impact how your application goes and whether or not you're going to get that registration you can also use some third-party trademark search tools there are companies out there that will do a very thorough trademark search these aren't lawyers or law offices they're just trademark search companies that will search the USPTO and common-law usage and even international usage and then what they'll do is they'll compile all the information and give you typically this very large report summarizing what they found now if you're not a lawyer and you don't know how to actually interpret and analyze those results it may not do you a whole lot of good to pay for that kind of a search but if you can figure out how to analyze what you're looking at then using one of those services for a pretty extensive search is a good idea but really the best option is to use an attorney to help you with this clearance search because the attorney is gonna not only know what to search for but they're also going to understand what they're looking at and they're gonna know how to analyze that in the context of your trademark and determine what it actually means for the fate of your trademark application so if we've determined we want to file the application and the trademark is available the next step is to start using the trademark now ok
Thanks for your comment Brice Arva, have a nice day.
- Kieth Teachout, Staff Member
trademark is a word phrase symbol or design or combination of words phrases symbols or designs that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others the service mark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product trademarks primary purpose is to prevent unfair competition between parties within a particular market by identifying the origin of the goods and services by using trademarks at companies products and/or services are identified as coming from that particular company and potential buyers are thus able to distinguish those goods and services from the goods and services offered by other companies within the same market now this is important in order to ensure that these potential buyers are not fooled into purchasing a product of one company while believing it to be a product of another company to register a trademark the applicant typically sends in a form usually referred to as filing a trademark application to the intellectual property offices or trademark office within the desired jurisdiction indicating the trademark for example word or words that should be protected or picture of the logo or color that should be protected along with the goods or services for which the protection is desired in most countries these goods and services must be indicated using the classes and/or specific indications as defined in the NEAs agreement for example t-shirts would be under class 25 and bicycles under class 12 or referring to these class numbers is then clear to the trademark office what the trademark protects in some countries the registration of the trademark filing or application is simplistic and there is almost no evaluation undertaken by the trademark office as to whether the trademark is actually valid in other countries however such as the United States the trademark office checks to register with in earlier trademarks to see if there are possible conflicts and also evaluates whether the trademark is distinctive for the goods and services indicated if the trademark is subsequently approved by the trademark office there sometimes follows a period during which third parties can file in opposition against the trademark for example somebody else may feel that they have an older trademark right that is confusingly similar to the new trademark or they may consider the new trademark to be generic for one of the goods or services indicated please feel free to watch more of our videos to get valuable insights about the mechanics of applying for trademark registrations defending your marks opposing other conflicting marks dealing with office actions and many other intellectual property issues my name is Johnathan Morin and I am a licensed US attorney and a member of the trade markers Network don't forget to subscribe
Thanks Shawn your participation is very much appreciated
- Kieth Teachout
About the author
I've studied maritime archaeology at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa and I am an expert in social development. I usually feel good. My previous job was furniture designer I held this position for 22 years, I love talking about mahjong and whale watching. Huge fan of Rock Lee I practice karate and collect for sports cards.
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