McIlvaine Law Firm » Register Your Trademarks

Register Your Trademarks

Ownership
Ownership of a trademark gives you the exclusive right to use a word, name, slogan, symbol, logo, or device used either separately or in combination to identify and distinguish your goods or services from those of others.

This traditional ‘common law’ trademark rights begin automatically with use. However, in 1946 Congress established a more modern system of Federal registration to better meet the needs of today’s national and international economy. The benefits of registration are considerable. For many businesses, a registered trademark is the most valuable thing they own. But because of the way trademark law works, registering your trademark is something you should take care of as soon as (or even before!) you adopt a new trademark.

Primary Benefits of Federal Trademark Registration:
1) Constructive notice of the existence of your trademark
2) Evidence of who owns the trademark
3) Your trademark rights can extend even into areas where you do not currently do business
4) You may register a trademark up to six months before you even begin using it, preventing your competitors from beating you to the marketplace with your own idea
4) Should you have to sue someone for infringing your trademark, you may be awarded treble damages and attorney’s fees if your trademark was registered before the infringement

But the main benefit of registering your trademark is to protect your relationship with your potential customers. Your potential customers know your name from your advertising, even if they have not yet purchased your goods or services. When they get around to looking you up in the phonebook, will yours be the only name of its kind listed?

Failure to secure your trademark rights could result in a competitor using your trademarks in other locations, or even in the loss of your trademark rights entirely.

Securing your trademarks is an essential step to doing business and is not something to put off until later. Not only could delay jeopardize your rights, but there are many additional benefits to trademark registration as well.

Additional Benefits of Federal Trademark Registration
1) Access to federal courts
2) Registration can make it easier to obtain additional trademark registration in countries outside the United States.
3) Registration may be filed with U.S. Customs Service to prevent importation of infringing foreign goods.
4) With registration, your right to exclusively use the trademark in commerce can become incontestible
5) Secure ownership of your domain name and confusingly similar domain names on the internet

You Need an Attorney
The McIlvaine Law Firm is an intellectual property lawfirm that focuses exclusively on Trademark and Copyright law. We are attorneys and we handle the entire trademark registration process from beginning to end. This means we:
1) Help you identify all of your trademarks
2) Perform a clearance search to discover any similar preexisting trademarks, both registered and unregistered nationwide
3) Identify and prepare the best sample of use
4) Prepare and file your trademark registration
5) Notify you when your trademark registration process has made progress
6) Respond to all correspondance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, including non-final office actions.
7) Receive and forward to you your finished trademark certificate and explain your new rights and responsibilities
All of the above is covered under one flat fee. The only thing not covered in the flat fee is a final office action or rejection. This happens very rarely, as we will discuss with you the strengths and weaknesses of your proposed mark and the likelihood of your success before we file the application. You may still wish to pursue your trademark after receiving a rejection, but at that point we must do so at an hourly rate.

As a word of caution, be careful of the many websites out there that claim to register your trademarks for you by providing ’self help services’. Typically, this means that they will give you an online form to fill out which they will then forward to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. These non-attorney websites accept any trademark application regardless of whether it will succeed or not, and they will not help you with any of the legal filings you may be required to make after the initial filing. Many of them will sell you a trademark search for as much money as an attorney will charge, but not provide you with the analysis and opinion that an attorney would.

The bottom line is, these ’self help’ websites are engaged in the unlicensed practice of law. But you are the one who will suffer for it when your trademark application is rejected when an attorney might have been able to spot a problem early on. Always ask to speak to the attorney in charge of handling your trademark. And don’t be afraid to talk to us, either! We charge one flat fee for trademark registration. You will never be billed for inquiring about the status of your trademark.

Trademark registration takes a year or more to complete, but your filing date is when your trademark begins. You cannot afford a trial run as not only will refiling cost you more money, it will cost you your filing date. Do it right the first time!

When you are ready, contact us to get started immediately.


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