Can I Use A Registered Trademark In Place Of My Buisness Nam

Registering your brand name every bit a trademark is a simple three-step process.
You can annals your brand name with the USPTO to protect your intellectual property from misuse.
It is not immediately necessary to secure a trademark, though it could do good your brand.
This article is for modest business owners who are ready to register and trademark their brand name or wondering whether they should.

Registering a trademark for your company is a large step that helps you protect your make identity from misuse or theft. Registering a trademark is a adequately straightforward process that you can complete in just a few easy steps.

This guide will walk you through each footstep needed to register and trademark your brand name, and respond some frequently asked questions almost registering your trademark.

What is a trademark?

According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a trademark is "a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of 1 party from those of the others."

Steps to trademark your company proper noun

Trademarking your company's proper noun is not as simple as filing for an LLC and may accept more fourth dimension than you imagine.

one. Search

Commencement, y'all need to search the federal database to ensure the name you desire to trademark isn't already protected as a trademark. You can do this with the USPTO's Trademark Electronic Search Organisation, also known as TESS. You should search not only for the proper name you lot want, just for similar names. Your registration could be denied if the name is too similar to a name already registered within the aforementioned class.

While this sounds straightforward, it tin exist complex. Iguana Water ice Cream and Iguana'due south Water ice Cream might be besides similar, for example. Information technology can likewise hateful that a registered trademark simply looks or sounds similar your mark or that the meanings are like.

2. Apply

Once you've searched and cleared the name you desire to trademark, it'south time to prepare your trademark application. Yous tin can file for a proper noun already in commercial employ or with an intent to use the proper name in the future.

The trademark application itself has 10 components:

The name and address of the applicant
The citizenship and legal entity of the applicant
A name and address for future correspondence (this does not have to exist the same every bit the name of the applicant)
A drawing of the desired marker (if yous are simply applying for the proper name and don't desire to include a design chemical element, y'all but type in the name)
A thorough description of the marking
A specific list of services or appurtenances covered by the trademark application
The form of services or goods
An example of the mark in use as well equally the date it was first used
A dated signature from you or an authorized representative
The advisable fee for the type and number of classes included on the application

three. File

Once y'all have completed the application, you lot have two filing options: TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard. The Plus selection is less expensive and more than streamlined; it also has a lower rate of rejections. However, if you demand to create a custom clarification of your services or goods that is not available in the preset list Plus provides, the risk associated with the Standard option may be more beneficial for your situation.

Once yous've submitted your awarding, yous volition receive a confirmation receipt from the USPTO and a series number that you can utilise to cheque the status of your application in the Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) portal.

Key takeaway Cardinal takeaway: To register and trademark your brand proper noun, search the TESS database for like brand names, fill out the trademark application, and submit information technology to the USPTO for review.

Trademark FAQs

What is the departure between a trade name, trademark and service mark?

A trademark protects goods, and a service marker does the same for services. However, the word "trademark" is sometimes used for both types of marks. Both are designed to limit the ability of competitors to mislead consumers with false claims of where a product or service originates.

A merchandise name is what is used in place of the official business proper noun. This is oft indicated on paperwork with the phrase "doing business as" (DBA). It is used when the business proper noun is considered as well lengthy or when the desired name was too close to one that already had a trademark or service mark. (Note that a trade name does non signal the legally responsible entity backside the service or product.)

Should you trademark your company proper noun?

Information technology isn't necessary to register your marking to receive protectable rights. In the Us, you are granted "common-constabulary rights" to a mark simply by using information technology as function of your business. This ways that you lot could brainstorm using it and enforce your ownership of it through documentation of beingness the first to apply information technology commercially. Even so, there are limitations on your rights with a common-law trademark.

Registering for a federal trademark has a number of advantages. Most importantly, information technology gives you lot legal ownership of the mark and the exclusive rights to utilise it anywhere in the nation as it relates to the appurtenances or services yous listed during registration. Mutual-police rights are limited to the immediate geographic expanse in which you are operating, and registering the name with your state only protects your rights within the borders of that land.

When you register your marker with the USPTO, at that place will be a public notice stating your ownership, and it will be listed in the online database. With a federally registered trademark, you also have the option to register your trademark with the U.S. Customs and Edge Protection to keep strange appurtenances from being imported with the same proper name. You'll as well exist able to use the federal symbol ® instead of the less enforceable ™ marking.

The name of your company is the primary way you present it to the globe. Imagine someone else using your company'southward proper name to make offers that are antonymous to the mission and values of your concern. If yous desire to afford your business the maximum legal protection, y'all will need a trademark.

When you file for a trademark, it only covers one classification. Each additional nomenclature must exist noted in the awarding and will incur an additional charge. There are 45 classes to exist considered. For example, if your business produces vehicles, you would want a Course 12 trademark. If you additionally wanted to sell clothing with the name of the same company on information technology, y'all would need to likewise accept a Class 25 trademark. Consider exactly how you will be using the name to determine which class or classes you should list it under.

Who should trademark their business name?

If your business has a unique proper name, it can exist trademarked as long every bit it isn't besides like to another name that has already received a trademark. For example, if the proper noun is too vague, similar The Ice Foam Store, it is unlikely to be eligible for a trademark. Something like Iguana Ice Foam would be more likely to receive a trademark, since it joins mutual words in a unique way.

It is also important to consider the geographical area you will be serving. The common-law trademark protection that you automatically receive by using the name is restricted to your immediate geographic area. If your business concern serves multiple states, yous'll definitely want to utilise for a trademark to protect your business organisation.

If you have several product lines within your business that also have unique names, yous may want to trademark those also. For instance, Ford is a trademark of the Ford Motor Visitor, which as well has trademarks for lines of vehicles such equally the F-150, Mustang, Ranger and Explorer.

Did you know? The common-police trademark protection that you automatically receive for your business name is only restricted to your immediate geographic surface area. If your business operates in multiple states, you should apply for a trademark.

Should I become a trademark or LLC first?

Whether yous should register for a trademark or an LLC start largely depends on your business goals.

A express liability company (LLC) is a business concern structure classification within the U.South. that describes a private limited company. It is commonly issued by the state in which the company operates, although you can receive an LLC from any state. An LLC registration ordinarily takes less than a day to procedure, while a trademark takes an average of three months.

If you want to brainstorm operating immediately, it makes sense to annals for the LLC first. If you have enough of atomic number 82 time and are more interested in securing your federal rights to the proper noun before you lot put it out into the globe, out of fear that it may be co-opted past someone else, then it makes more sense to apply for the trademark get-go.

Does your business need a trademark registration correct away?

Your business does not need to register for a trademark right away.

Typically yous need to be able to evidence "use in commerce" when registering for a marking, which means that you should exist able to prove it was being used before you could register it. However, there is the pick to apply for an intent-to-utilize (ITU) trademark.

If you proceed with an ITU trademark, yous withal take to demonstrate your use of the mark in commerce by completing the documentation and paying the additional fees within the allotted timeframe prior to the marker's registration.

In that location are only iii periods inside which you can claim utilize in commerce:

Prior to approval for publication
Within vi months of the issuance of the notice of allowance (NOA)
Within the time granted past an extension

You lot tin can establish utilize in commerce in several different means, including the following:

Placing the mark on your goods sold or your website for appurtenances sold
Using the mark in clan with services being sold

There are three types of commerce under federal constabulary:

Foreign commerce
Territorial
Interstate

What is not typically acceptable is intrastate commerce, meaning business that is limited to the borders of a single state.

If your business organization can't yet prove you lot are using the trademark in commerce, or if yous won't be able to evidence it within the confines of the ICU process, there is no reason to apply for the trademark first.

If I register a business proper name, exercise I demand to register a trademark?

Registering a business proper noun is typically done at the country level and does non provide federal protection. If you are only going to provide services or products within that country, there is no reason to register for a trademark. If yous are offering products and services in multiple states and want federal protection for the name of your business, though, y'all would demand to register for a trademark.

How can y'all tell if someone else already has rights to a marker?

TESS makes information technology easy to search the federal database of trademarks in various ways. The "basic give-and-take marker search" allows you to search names, words and phrases that take received a federal trademark.

The "word and/or pattern marking search" allows yous to use either a design or words or a combination of the ii to search the database. However, yous will likely need to know the design codes to practice this effectively.

There is also the pick to scan the directory or individual fields within the database. If y'all aren't sure exactly what might accept been trademarked but you know a general engagement, you lot can search past registration or publication date.

If your registration is accustomed, how long is that registration valid?

A trademark registration is valid for as long as you are willing to maintain it. Once a trademark is issued, it does not expire as long as information technology remains in use for the registered purpose. You come across, a trademark does not grant you ownership of the discussion, phrase or image; it gives you the right to that word, phrase or image as it is used to identify the services or appurtenances listed in the registration.

Nevertheless, using information technology isn't quite enough. You must give the USPTO proof that the trademark has remained in use by filing a Section eight proclamation between the fifth and sixth ceremony of the registration. This is a elementary sworn argument.

Upon the registration's tenth anniversary, actual proof is required. This can be an image of your product or service using the trademark. You must do this every ten years.