Why do you trademark something [Updated]

Last updated : Sept 26, 2022

Written by : Wade Bouska

Current : 8210

Write a comment

What is the purpose of trademark?

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

What are the benefits of having a trademarked item?

A Federal Trademark Registration Protects Against Infringement.
A Federal Trademark Registration Provides Nationwide Validity.
A Federal Trademark Registration is a Valuable Asset.
Unique Trademarks Helps Customers Find You.

Is it necessary to have a trademark?

You are not required to register your trademark, but where or whether you decide to register your trademark can determine the scope of your rights. Specifically, you can rely on common law rights or file for state, federal, or international trademark registration.

Why should I trademark my business?

A trademark prevents anyone else from selling similar goods and services within the United States under that business name. The primary purpose of trademarks is to prevent confusion in the marketplace, so the protection applies to only a particular category of goods and services.

What should you trademark?

Typically, business or product names, logos, or slogans are registered as trademarks. Items such as distinct product packaging, colors and sounds may also obtain trademark protection. The USPTO will not grant registration for generic or descriptive terms or anything that may be confusingly similar to an existing mark.

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.

Do you pay taxes on a trademark?

Report your profit from the sale of the trademark on your income taxes. You cannot deduct the cost of creating your trademark, but you can apply it to your formulation of the "income tax basis", which is the reference point for determining tax liability upon sale and depreciation deductions.

What is the value of a trademark?

The value of a trademark lies in the goodwill associated with that trademark. Goodwill is an intangible asset that is part of the value of the trademark owner's business. It can be quite difficult to assign a monetary value to goodwill because many variables must be considered.

What happens when you trademark something?

When you trademark a phrase, you protect the words that represent your product or service. Trademarking a phrase prevents someone else from using it for a product or service that could be mistaken for yours. That means a trademark can only be enforced in the business class where it is registered.

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.

When should you trademark a name?

In most cases, the best time to file a trademark application for your business name is right after you've filed paperwork to form your LLC or corporation. By doing this before your business officially launches, it protects the name for commercial use once you're up and running.

What do trademarks protect?

A trademark typically protects brand names and logos used on goods and services. A copyright protects an original artistic or literary work. A patent protects an invention. For example, if you invent a new kind of vacuum cleaner, you would apply for a patent to protect the invention itself.

What happens when you trademark a 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).

Does a trademark protect a logo?

A trademark can be a word, phrase, symbol or image unique enough to register as a business' exclusive brand. By trademarking a logo, business owners acquire legal protection against counterfeits, copycats and fraud.

Can I trademark a name already in use?

If you're wondering, "can you trademark something that already exists," the simple answer is "no." Generally speaking, if somebody has used a trademark before you, you can't register the trademark for yourself.

Can simple words be trademarked?

Common words and phrases can be trademarked if the person or company seeking the trademark can demonstrate that the phrase has acquired a distinctive secondary meaning apart from its original meaning. That secondary meaning must be one that identifies the phrase with a particular good or service.

Do I need to trademark my business name?

There's no legal requirement for you to register a trademark. Using a business name can give you 'common law' rights, even without formally registering it.

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 much does it cost to file a trademark for a phrase?

If you have ever asked yourself how much does it cost to trademark a phrase, according to the current fee schedule on the USPTO, trademark registration fees cost $275 per mark per class. If you need an attorney's assistance, the cost averages around $1,000 to $2,000.

Did you find this article relevant to what you were looking for? Yes No

Write a comment

Comment by Chang Bartz

you're the last few weeks at chase lawyers we've had a lot of inquiries of my trademarks what is a trademark how do I get rights in my trademark what kind of trade mark can I have and what will it cover for me if you look behind me at that bud lights on the bud light party sign you'll see a little are in a circle which means that the Budweiser company is actually applied for and obtained a federal registration that's what the Army's you'll see a little TM beside other trademarks that just means it's a trademark claim the key thing to know about trademarks is it's a branding so if you want to have a brand name that's not your real name for example lady gaga has a brand name lady gaga but her real name is Stephanie Germanotta and so she has applied and received from the trademark office a trademark and only she can use lady gaga it's possible that others could use it for other purposes they're only lady gaga could use it for entertainment and certain kinds of apparel and all the rest so if you want to get involved in the branding game seriously you really ought to talk to a trademark attorney will be happy to answer your questions on trade max you can email me at berry at chase lawyers com ba roi chac and maybe someday you'll get your little are in a circle too don't forget to Like comment and subscribe to our channel for more videos or visit chase lawyers.com for more information

Thanks for your comment Chang Bartz, have a nice day.
- Wade Bouska, Staff Member

Comment by Devorah

hey there folks Jim Hart back out you hear from Hawthorn lawn today I want to talk to you about seven kind of seven reasons that you should trademark your brand or business name or logo or whatever it might be all right so it's been a couple weeks since I've been talking to you and a couple weeks ago I talked to you about when you should do a trademark for your business or a brand so today I want to talk to you about why you should do a trademark for your business or brand no do not drink a carbonated beverage before you do one of these discussions because you just start belching up the whole time of that alright so seven reasons you need to trademark your brand name or business let's start with number one it protects your brand if you trademark your brand or your business name or your logo or whatever it might be it protects your brand from competitors coming in and trying to steal your brand or trying to make counterfeit goods or do things like that so it's a very inexpensive way to protect your business in the event that somebody tries to copy what you're doing so that's number one the best reason to do it and that's why most people do it and that's what most people think about when they think trademark they think okay I'm doing something to protect my business and that's really the name of the game here folks is you're trying to protect your business from somebody coming in and copycatting your brand or your logo or something like that that's number one reason number two reason that you want to trademark your business or brand is isn't extremely excuse me it is an extremely inexpensive way to invest in your business for filing fees as low as $275 you basically can register your trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office that's just I mean now if you don't want to do it yourself you can pay an attorney to do it and that's usually gonna cost you another one to two thousand dollars depending on choose to use that's an extremely inexpensive investment into your business the third reason you want to trademark your brand is that once its trademark you can use that little are simple with the the circle around it hold on a second here's the one I'm talking about it's 70 cents you've seen those around now once you do that if you see that on a trademark or a logo or a brand name or something else in the out in the general public there's a company that owns that registered trademark and they have actually filed for and received protection with the United States Patent and Trademark Office that's another main reason you want to do it it gives your brand a little bit of legitimacy knowing that it's trademarked so that nobody's going to come in and I mean they know right away that brand is protected I don't want to mess with it so here's a great one that a lot of people don't know number four it's that if you are doing some sort of e-commerce business specifically maybe even selling on Amazon if you register your trademark for your brand you can file that trademark with US Customs and Border Patrol order protection they can actually block goods from coming into the United States that would be infringing on your trademark or that might be counterfeit goods for your brand so that is a huge benefit to registering your trademark specifically if you're doing aim to have an e-commerce business and you're worried about copycat sellers that is a main reason to do it number five this is also a great one these are I mean let's be honest these are all great reasons to trip to register your trademark but it really increases the value of your brand and this is just a little too bright for me all right that's a little better I think I was starting to see a halo and I'm probably still seeing a little bit of a halo hopefully I'm not blinded by this these lights so if you decide that someday you want to sell your brand by registering the trademarks your brand that's going to greatly enhance the value of your brand in that you want to sell because a lot of times for some people for somebody's coming in to buy your business the value of the business is in the brand that you own and the fact that you have that brand as a registered trademark that isn't a tremendous value to some companies and they will actually put a premium on the price they will pay you just because you have registered that brand that's a really easy way to increase the value of your brand for your logo or something like that is by registering the trademark but specifically if you're looking to sell your business at some point in the future and along those same lines I will tell you I've heard from other people that are that are people that would want to sell their business that when a buyer comes in part of their due diligence is seeing whether or not the brand is trademark if it is not trademarked they want to see that the brand gets trademarked before they're willing to buy so we're gonna actually delay your sale if a seller comes in and they want to make sure your brand is trading month before and the reason they do that you see they don't want to buy your brand if you can't trademark your brand the intellectual property is where all the value comes from make sense sixth reason that you want to register your trademark is once you've done so you can go ahead and sue somebody that some fringes on your brand in federal court I know that doesn't seem like a big deal but it is a big deal because some of these lawsuits can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars because you're allowed to get trouble damages and attorneys fees that means three times damages and attorneys fees so that would be another main reason you want to make sure that your your brand is trademarked and the last reason we've got today is that by registering your brand it's gonna prevent somebody else from coming in and registering a brand that might be confusingly similar to you because what can happen is if somebody comes in and they see your brand is doing really well and they want to register something that's similar but now that you the same the US Patent and Trademark Office will do a search and they still may decline registration of that brand that might be confusingly similar to yours so that is another really important reason why you want to make sure your brand is trademarked because if it's not and you're Sol and you know what that means alright so there you go seven seven reasons why you might want to register your trademark hopefully you found this helpful if you did please give us a big thumbs up don't forget to comment below and click the link to subscribe over here we'll see you again next time hopefully you're having a great day a great holiday season I'm looking forward to what 2019 has in store for you and for your business and we will talk again very soon take care folks peace out bye bye

Thanks Devorah your participation is very much appreciated
- Wade Bouska

About the author

Wade Bouska

I've studied chondogyo at Hendrix College in Conway and I am an expert in astrophysical plasma. I usually feel silly. My previous job was wildlife control agent I held this position for 11 years, I love talking about drawing and rapping. Huge fan of Paul Walker I practice ski jumping and collect automobilia.

All you ever wanted to know

about "Why do you trademark something".

Try Not to laugh !

Joke resides here...