Federal Trademark
Registration FAQs

A trademark is a means of safeguarding the distinct name, logo, and symbols associated with your business or product brand. This form of protection extends to business names, logos, symbols, sounds, and colors that are representative of a particular brand. After registration, the ® symbol is often used alongside the name, logo, or slogan.

For instance, consider the trademarked orange color of Reese's peanut butter cup packaging or the trademarked bitten fruit symbol of Apple computers. Both of these distinctive symbols instantly create brand recognition and product association for consumers.

Registering a trademark is crucial for safeguarding your brand's identity. By doing so, you can prevent competitors from luring away your customers by replicating your brand. Furthermore, it can provide some level of protection in case these imitators engage in activities that harm your reputation.

Obtaining a federal trademark provides legal protection for your brand throughout the United States, protecting it from counterfeiting and fraud. Additionally, it allows you to take legal action against competitors who steal your ideas. By obtaining a trademark, you also gain exclusive rights to your brand's names, slogans, and logos. This protects your brand identity and prevents the need for costly redesigns due to existing trademark violations. Furthermore, registering your trademark allows you to use the ® symbol, indicating to others that your brand is protected and increasing its credibility. Finally, trademarks last indefinitely, as long as you continue to use them and file the necessary maintenance documents.

Individuals who assert themselves as owners of a mark or intend to become owners of the mark are eligible to apply for trademark registration. The application must specify the mark, the goods or services associated with it, the applicant's name and address, and the duration of the mark's use, along with a signature.

If you're launching a new brand identity or intending to provide freshly branded goods or services, it's essential to take the required measures to shield your business from imitators and rivals.

In the event that your trademark is already being used, you have the option to take action to prevent further usage if you can demonstrate that you were the original user of the trademark and that its use by another entity is likely to confuse consumers. Although the Federal Registration may have more effective methods for stopping trademark infringement, you still have legal recourse available to you while conducting business.

If you're a U.S. citizen, it's not required, but it's highly advisable due to the high rejection rate, office actions, and limited attempts available. You can also hire a trademark expert instead of a lawyer to prepare your application. However, foreign-domiciled applicants must be represented by a U.S.-licensed attorney at the USPTO.

We do not operate as a legal firm or provide legal advice. Nevertheless, our team of trademark registration specialists, who have assisted more than 50,000 business owners in registering their trademarks, are knowledgeable about the intricacies of trademark registration and can optimize your chances of successfully registering your trademark.

The processing time for an application can range from six months to several years, depending on the filing basis and any legal issues that may arise during the examination of the application.

No, as the examining attorney will scrutinize the application and may deny it based on the Trademark Act of 1946, 15 U.S.C. §1051 et seq., or the Trademark Rules of Practice, 37 C.F.R. Part 2.
For this reason, we have a team of trademark registration experts who have helped over 10,000 clients obtain their trademarks. We pay close attention to details to increase your chances of success.

If there is a conflict between the applicant's proposed mark and a registered mark or a mark in an earlier-filed pending application, the examining attorney will refuse registration due to the likelihood of confusion. To avoid this, it's crucial to conduct a trademark search for conflicting marks before filing. Other reasons for rejection include marks that are deceptively misdescriptive, primarily geographically deceptively misdescriptive, primarily merely a surname, or merely a decorative feature. Additional information about each reason for rejection can be found here.

Trademark refers to a symbol, phrase, design, or word that identifies the source of goods or services, commonly recognized as brand recognition. A trademark can last indefinitely if properly maintained.

Patent refers to the protection of an invention, whether it be functionality or design, and includes new and useful processes, machines, compositions of matter, or improvements thereof. The patent owner generally holds the exclusive right to produce goods or utilize processes within the scope of the patent for a 20-year period from the earliest priority date.

Copyright protects artistic works like literature, photography, music, movies, and art.

The registration can remain valid for a maximum of 10 years and can be renewed as long as there is continuous use of the trademark in interstate commerce.

In reality, nearly any "device" has the potential to be a trademark (or service mark), which encompasses sounds, smells, colors, trade dress, and moving images. This is only limited by one's creativity and the acceptance of the device as a source identifier in the marketplace.

If the name is utilized to identify live performances, it can operate as a service mark for "entertainment services in the nature of performances by a musical group."

Although there are no fixed guidelines for the placement of the "®" symbol in relation to the trademark, it is common practice for most companies to use the symbol in the top right corner of the mark. This symbol signifies that your trademark has been officially registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

You can use the ® symbol if you have a trademark registered with the government. For any other mark, whether registered or unregistered, there is no obligation to add a designation. However, we recommend that mark owners use the 'SM' or 'TM' symbol to indicate that their company name, logo, or symbol is proprietary to their goods or services.

In the United States, a common law trademark is established when a company name, logo, or slogan is used in commerce, even if it is not registered. However, common law rights are typically limited to the geographic area where the mark is used, which can hinder the expansion of the brand. Although registration of a trademark involves a fee, it provides nationwide protection and can prevent others from using a similar mark, which can limit the growth of the business. Additionally, a registered trademark can provide advantages in court and favorable remedies in the event of litigation. Moreover, once a trademark is accepted by the USPTO, it is recorded in their database, which can deter future disputes by notifying potential competitors that the mark is already in use.

Some small business owners may believe that trademark registration is only important for multinational corporations. However, safeguarding your brand identity and hard work is equally crucial for small enterprises.

Small businesses typically trademark their brand logos, but other elements such as words, symbols, packaging, and even sounds can also be trademarked. The determination of whether a particular aspect of your brand identity is eligible for trademark registration is made on a case- by-case basis. Seeking guidance from a small business intellectual property lawyer can help you answer any inquiries.

Experts advise creating a distinctive logo and branding for your company. Doing so has two advantages:

A unique logo or symbol provides immediate brand recognition.
A unique logo or symbol increases the intellectual property protection for your business since it
is easily recognizable and thus difficult to replicate.