US TRADEMARK REGISTRATION
US trademark registration provides you an opportunity to expand your business in the global market. It will protect your brand when you grow your business at an international level. Trademark assurance is territorial and exists only within the country’s line for which the trademark has been registered.
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US TRADEMARK REGISTRATION IN JUST 3 SIMPLE STEPS:
Step 1
Trademark Search
Step 2
Step 3
ONLINE US TRADEMARK REGISTRATION - Overview
US trademark registration, which preserves the brand name, can include a word, symbol, logo, or any combination used to distinguish the respective products and help from the similar ones in the market.
Trademark certainty is territorial and exists only within the ends of a country where the trademark has been filed. Entities looking at increasing their businesses at the international level must ensure that their brand is sufficiently protected in the several countries where they expect to start their business.
One of the economically leading nations, the United States of America, has its own Federal Law and individual State Laws about trademarks and a centralized governing authority called the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF US TRADEMARK REGISTRATION?
US Trademark Registration Offers The Following Advantages:
- Legal ownership ultimately all states in the US.
- A United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) confers trademark registration highest degree of protection for a brand name.
- Restricted usage rights
- Right to avoid others from using the trademark
- The trademark gets registered on the USPTO Trademark Database (Trademark Electronic Search System, or TESS)
- Right to use the ® symbol.
- A USPTO trademark certification extends the estimate of the brand name as well as the business.
- Rights to take a legal claim against infringers and counterfeits
- A USPTO trademark registration grants legal authenticity to the brand and the business, which would expand customer support.
HOW TO File A US TRADEMARK REGISTRATION?
Before filing a US trademark registration request, you must check whether the intended mark is available to register. Can do this through an online Trademark search in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Database.
US Trademark Registry Research
The United States Patent and Trademark Office Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS)database describes all the registered trademarks and pending trademark applications in one place. You can do a free online search to determine if any existing, identical marks may likely confuse the suggested impact. To know how its works, it is essential to know the following points:
- How To Perform A Exact Us Trademark Registry Search
The applicants can apply any of the three search possibilities: Basic word mark search, design mark search, and sequence of the word. the design mark search specifies the “Search term.” This will select up all the trademarks related to the specified term at once.
- How To Read The Results
When a specific result is clicked, it will present the following details.
- US Serial number
- Mark type
- Description
- Status – whether pending or active
- Owner’s name, address, and entity type
- Prosecution history
- Proceedings, if any.
And so on, legaltoast trademark professionals and US Trademark Attorneys will help clients understand the results and offer the appropriate advice.
IDENTIFICATION OF CLASS
The USPTO should present all the goods and services under 45 classes, under which the trademarks have to be registered. These classes are also called the NICE group (NCL). For illustration, all artistic instruments fall under Class 15; Class 14 includes all valuable metals, composites, and valuable stones. The class has to be categorized based on the product or service.
PREPARING A US TRADEMARK REGISTRATION APPLICATION
For Us trademark registration application must include the following details:
Applicant’s Details:
This business entity consists of LLP, Private Limited, LLC, business name, and contact details like email address and mobile number.
Format Of Mark:
The proposed mark could consist of three formats:
Standard Character Format:
This format is when the mark consists of words, letters, numbers, or unions out of any specific designs and font styles.
Special Character Format:
If the mark comprises any stylized words or numbers in a suitable typeface, color, and styling as in “Google,” “eBay,” “Kellogg’s,” then it would be of unique character format.
Sound Mark:
Sound marks are for companies who want to register their jingles and chimes. For example, Intel’s five-note logo.
SPECIMEN OF USE
As a portion of the US trademark registration process, the next step is to provide a specimen of your work. i.e., a mark design gives a visual deception of how it seems and how completely it is attached with the products/services you offer and must submit the specimen in supporting documents for trademark registration in the USA.
US TRADEMARK SPECIFICATION
Must carefully draft the intended trademark’s specifications to include all the goods/services your business offers. It should be as per the ID Manual’s acceptable USPTO entries, including the list of proper identification of goods and services. If there is already an accurate description of the products or goods and services, it can use; else, it must describe in your own words.
US TRADEMARK FILING BASIS (SEC. 1A, 1B, 44D, 44E)
In the US Trademark Law, the “filing basis” must several on which cause the trademark or service mark has been registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). It could be one or more reasons, depending on the specification.
The Four Reasons Are:
Use in Commerce: This is if the mark is being used for trading goods/services across many states and countries or within one State.
Intent to Use: As the name implies, if you “intend” to use the mark in trade and commerce soon, maybe within four to five years, it can be listed on this basis.
Foreign Application basis under Section 44(d): If you are looking to display the foreign application that has already been registered within six months.
Foreign Registration basis under Section 44(e): If the mark presently has a foreign registration, the relevant information along with the certificate has to be submitted.
FILING OF US TRADEMARK REGISTRATION
Step 1: Filing Of Application
Once the appeal form is presented with all the required details, it is filed with the USPTO, and it will issue an official filing receipt and the serial number trademark registration in the USA. Can trace the filed trademark’s real-time State at http://tsdr.uspto.gov/ using the serial number.
Step 2: Trademark Examination
Upon request, within the next three months, It will add to the Trademark Examiner or Trademark Attorney, who will examine the application for substantive areas of objection (Similarity with other marks, etc.).
Step 3: Trademark Office Action
An Office Action notice will be issued if any ease and substantive ground of objection are found during the investigation. You have six months to file a reply to the Office Action and assign the individual informality and answer why the substantive ground of objection must be rejected.
Step 4: Publication Of Trademark Action
Assume no informality and objection, or once a reply to the Office Action has been filed, the Examiner appropriately accepts the same. In that case, your trademark certificate is accepted for printing in the respective Trademark Official Gazette. The Gazette lists all the newly announced marks renewed and canceled marks. A prior Notice of Advertisement shall be issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) stating the trademark application’s publication date.
Step 5: Trademark Opposition Period
In 30 days from the date of declaration of the trademark certificate in the Trademark Official Gazette, any third party and other trademark partners may object that your mark is related to their brand and may produce commercial or economic infliction to them. In such a state, they can also file for an expansion of time, for a maximum of 180 days, and for filing an opposition against the trademark, the Subject to approval from the USPTO will come.
If an opponent is filed within 30 days or the extended period, shall initiate the particular opposition procedures
Step 6: Trademark Registration
If no opposition arises in this period, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) shall publish the Registration Certificate for the trademark, presented the request is not registered on Purpose to Use Filing Basic (Sec. 1b). For a trademark application filed on an Intent to Use basis, the USPTO shall issue a Notice of Allowance.
US TRADEMARK VALIDITY
The trademark, once disclosed, shall be valid for ten years from the date of application Information/documents Expected For US trademark registration:
- Name of the Applicant, address, and type of entity along with the Applicant’s signature and verification
- Identification of relevant goods and services
- The filing basis
- Specimen or drawing of the intended mark. Video clips or audio files if it is a sound mark
- Description of the mark
- Filing fees
FAQS ON US TRADEMARK REGISTRATION
No, trademark, copyright, and Patent are the different types of Intellectual Property Rights. A trademark protects the brand name of a business, which can be in the form of a word, logo, tagline, etc.
Copyright protects an author's original work, and Patent protects an invention.
No, a company/business registration name is the corporate name of an entity duly incorporated in the respective State. For instance, Apple Inc. is the company name, and "Apple" is the registered trademark of Apple Inc.
Once a trademark application is filed, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues a Serial Number. Can view the real-time status and documents on Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) at the following link- http://tsdr.uspto.gov/.
Besides the informalities found in the trademark application, the Examiner may also issue an Office Action based on the Similarity between marks and the grounds of descriptive of the trademark. An objection on the grounds of Similarity of marks indicates that the Examiner has found your trademark to be confusingly similar (phonetic, visual, structural Similarity) to one or more trademarks that already exist and are listed on the USPTO Trademark Database. Objection on the grounds of descriptive of the mark indicates that the trademark applied is not distinctive or lacks distinctiveness.
Generally, non-distinctive marks cannot be quickly registered. They would face several objections unless the Applicant proves that the mark is inherently distinctive or has acquired distinctiveness by long, continuous, and extensive usage. In most cases, Inherently distinctive marks get hassle-free registration.
There are three categories of marks considered inherent distinctive: 1. Fanciful marks 2. Arbitrary marks 3. Suggestive marks Fanciful and arbitrary marks are the most potent form of marks that would be considered highly inherently distinctive and easily registerable.
Fanciful trademarks refer to marks formed using coined or invented words/terms that do not have any meaning or cannot be attributed to a known meaning. Fanciful trademarks are the most vital kind of trademark, and generally, a fanciful flies trademark registration in the USA without any objections. For instance- Pepsi is a fanciful trademark as it is a coined word.
Arbitrary trademarks are formed with terms/words with a dictionary or a known meaning. Still, that meaning is not directly associated with the said trademark's products and services. For example, Apple, used by Apple Inc. for computer hardware and software, is an Arbitrary trademark. The general meaning of "Apple" is a fruit and has no connection with computers and software.
As the name means, Suggestive trademarks only indirectly recommend and do not directly describe or relate to the said trademark's products and services. For instance, MICROSOFT is a suggestive trademark as the mark indirectly suggests and refers to software used for microcomputers such as desktops, laptops, etc. Suggestive trademarks are not considered the highest distinctiveness category, conferred to Fanciful and Arbitrary marks.
Descriptive and Generic trademarks are the weakest trademarks and would not be allowed registration or would have numerous hindrances in its registration, which would be expensive.
Identifying marks directly compares and represents the said trademark's products and services. Similarly, General marks are those marks, which have a standard dictionary or known meaning. That meaning is directly correlated with the said trademark's products and services.
For filing an appeal on an "Intent-to-use" basis, if no complaints are filed either within the engagement period or the extended time, the USPTO issues a Notice of Allowance (NOA), which means that the trademark has provided, still, in order to register the mark, the appellant must submit the Statement of Use (SOU) within six months (extendable to maximum 36 months) from the date of issuance of the NOA.
Having a registered trademark is necessary for any business to work. A registered trademark is a relevant addition to the business/brand and is a sign of the authenticity of the products/services. If you do not have a registered trademark, you cannot continue against or take legal action against anyone trying to infringe your trademark.
If the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) breaks a trademark, the Applicant can revive by filing a Petition to Overcome, based on abandonment. Such petitions should generally be filed within two months from when the Notice of Abandonment was notified.
The registration listed process takes approximately six to nine months from the date of applying, granted if there is no opposition and objection.
Will review the application for completeness and agreement with the registration requirements.
Yes. Registered trademarks require to be renewed every ten years. On the fifth and sixth birthday of registration, you require to list a declaration of use and a specimen, determining the usage of the current mark in US commerce.
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