Trademark registration with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is easy, but there are two important things to register that you need to know about it.
Thing 1: The USPTO does not register phrases.
Thing 2: The USPTO does not register brands.
So what does the USPTO register?
So how do I know which class my product falls into?
What information needed to be provided for US trademark registration online?
What are the advantages of working with a law firm and what are the costs?
Why does it take so long to receive an official response from the patent office for my application?
How long does it take for a trademark application to become an official registered mark?
Do I need a lawyer to file a trademark application and why?
How do I conduct a trademark search before applying for a trademark?
Thing 1: The USPTO does not register phrases.
The USPTO does not register phrases. The USPTO will only register a trademark if it is used in business, and it must therefore be a word, phrase, logo, or symbol that consumers can recognize as being associated with your company or product.
The USPTO will not register words or graphics by themselves – they must be part of a logo or design that has meaning when combined with other elements of the mark. For example, you cannot just get the word “McDonald’s” registered as your own; instead you need an image that shows how this word is visually associated with McDonald’s restaurants (a golden arches logo).
Thing 2: The USPTO does not register brands.
A trademark is a symbol or word that represents the goods or services of one company. A brand is a name, phrase, logo or design associated with a product or service. To register your trademark in the US, you’ll need to submit an application and pay fees. But this does not provide protection for your brand; instead it allows you to protect your specific mark when it comes to use on goods and services (in this case clothing).
The best way to protect your brand is through state laws that govern unfair competition laws (section 43a-1-3 of the Connecticut General Statutes). These laws enforce against anyone who may intentionally infringe upon another’s intellectual property rights by using their marks without consent or authorization from said owner—including but not limited to counterfeiting/knockoff products made without permission from original manufacturers; passing off ones own products as being made by another company; falsely describing how unique/special something really is compared against others available out there already within marketplace space constraints; etcetera…
So what does the USPTO register?
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) registers:
- Trademarks. These are words, phrases, symbols or designs that identify the source of goods or services and distinguish them from those of others.
- Service marks. These are similar to trademarks but identify and distinguish a service rather than a product.
- Certification marks. These are used in connection with goods or services to certify regional origin, material composition, quality control, accuracy, safety or other characteristics of products bearing such certification marks as “Hecho en Mexico” (Made In Mexico).
- Collective marks/trade dress protection – Collective trademarks may be used by members of an association to indicate membership in that organization while distinguishing collective membership from individual ownership; trade dress protection refers to identifying features associated with the appearance of a product (such as shape or color), which serve as indicators of origin for consumers but do not necessarily imply any particular sponsorship by another business entity
What are the advantages of working with a law firm and what are the costs?
- You can get help with the application process.
- You can get help with the USPTO trademark search.
- You can get help with the copyright registration process.
- You can get help with the copyright renewal process.
- You can get help with the copyright cancellation process.
Why does it take so long to receive an official response from the patent office for my application?
There are several reasons why it may take some time for the patent office to respond to your application. The most common causes include:
- Understaffing – In order for the patent office to complete their work in a timely manner, they need a staff that is large enough and appropriately trained.
- Underfunding – The funding level of an organization directly affects how quickly they can respond to applications, as well as how many applications they are able to process each year. If this funding is not sufficient (or even nonexistent), then there will be long delays between when you submit your application and when you receive an official response from them.
- Backlogged – A backlog refers specifically to cases where there has been an influx of work at one point or another—either because there has been more submitted than usual or because someone left without doing all of their work first—and now everyone else behind them must wait longer than usual before receiving their own responses back from this backlogged case load
Do I need a lawyer to file a trademark application and why?
A trademark application is a legal document, and therefore, it requires the services of an attorney. Not only can an attorney help you avoid mistakes in filing your application, but they can also assist you with the actual process of submitting your paperwork to the USPTO. A lawyer can perform a trademark search for you and make sure that no one else has registered a mark similar or identical to yours (which might create confusion among consumers). They’ll also advise you on how best to protect your brand name. Finally, it’s possible that one day down the road when obtaining federal registration is needed for some reason—for instance, if another company starts using your mark without permission—it’ll be much easier if there are substantial records showing continuous use of said mark since its inception.
So, to sum up: US trademark registration is a straightforward process that you can do yourself through the USPTO website. The only thing that you need to be careful about when doing so is making sure that your trademark falls into one of the categories listed above. If it doesn’t, then it won’t get registered by the USPTO; but if it does, then your application will go through without any problems!
