Register a Trademark to Maintain Your Rights
If you’re the owner of a new business or service and have come up with a great name for your business, you’ll want to protect it right away to prevent it from being used by others. What’s even better is that the process of registering a trademark does not need to be time-consuming and it can take just over an hour to give you exclusive rights to your chosen business name. Once you have registered a trademark you can put the ® symbol next to it to deter other businesses or individuals from using it without your consent.
Be Protected
Without registering a trademark, you may find it impossible to take legal action against someone who is using your company name. You will have to put a compelling case forwards to convince the authorities that you are associated with the trademark and that if others use it, your business could be harmed. Register it however and the authorities will be able to act if an attempt at stealing your trademark is made. Once you have registered a trademark, you commence ownership of exclusive rights to it, and you can even sell it if you wish.
Original and Memorable Trademarks
It’s important to ensure that someone else has not already registered your chosen trademark before you start to go about registering it yourself. In the US, you can use the online Trademark Electronic Search System database to see whether someone else already owns your proposed trademark or not. This can save you time, money and embarrassment. Generally, the first business to assume ownership of a trademark in a geographic area is automatically permitted to use it, but this does not stop someone else from registering it and finding the rights to it switched to their ownership as a result, which means that is extremely wise to register your trademark at the first opportunity. It is worth remembering that generic trademarks such as “The Music Shop” for instance may be harder to register, so it is worth attempting to come up with a unique and original trademark.
Register Trademarks without Fuss
When you do register a trademark online, you will need to provide the authorities with information such as the category of sales that you are operating as well as details pertaining to the design that you will be using. Once you have applied, you can expect to receive a response from USPTO – the US Patent and Trademark Office. Many people have found it helpful to seek advice and support from a patent attorney in the past to increases their chances of success. This is because these professionals generally have an in-depth knowledge of patenting law, and play a pivotal role in any successful attempt to register a trademark. If there are any objections to your application once it enters the public domain, you may face a tough battle, so it is always worth doing your homework to avoid copying someone else’s trademark by mistake.