How Do I Register My Brand Name?

Registering your brand proper noun as a trademark is a simple three-stride process.
You can register your brand name with the USPTO to protect your intellectual property from misuse.
It is not immediately necessary to secure a trademark, though information technology could benefit your brand.
This article is for small business organisation owners who are set to annals and trademark their brand name or wondering whether they should.

Registering a trademark for your company is a big stride that helps you lot protect your make identity from misuse or theft. Registering a trademark is a fairly straightforward process that yous tin can consummate in merely a few piece of cake steps.

This guide will walk you through each step needed to register and trademark your brand proper noun, and answer some ofttimes asked questions about registering your trademark.

What is a trademark?

According to the U.s.a. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a trademark is "a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the appurtenances of one party from those of the others."

Steps to trademark your company proper name

Trademarking your company's name is not as simple as filing for an LLC and may have more time than y'all imagine.

1. Search

Offset, yous need to search the federal database to ensure the proper noun you want to trademark isn't already protected as a trademark. You can do this with the USPTO's Trademark Electronic Search System, likewise known as TESS. You lot should search non just for the name you lot want, simply for similar names. Your registration could be denied if the name is besides similar to a name already registered inside the same class.

While this sounds straightforward, it tin can be circuitous. Iguana Ice Foam and Iguana'southward Ice Cream might exist besides like, for case. Information technology tin also mean that a registered trademark simply looks or sounds like your mark or that the meanings are similar.

two. Use

Once you've searched and cleared the name y'all want to trademark, information technology's time to prepare your trademark awarding. You tin can file for a proper name already in commercial use or with an intent to utilize 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 non have to be the same equally the proper noun of the bidder)
A cartoon of the desired mark (if you are only applying for the name and don't want to include a design chemical element, you simply blazon in the proper name)
A thorough description of the marking
A specific list of services or appurtenances covered by the trademark application
The class of services or goods
An case of the marking in use likewise as the date it was showtime used
A dated signature from you or an authorized representative
The advisable fee for the type and number of classes included on the application

3. File

Once yous take completed the application, you have two filing options: TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard. The Plus option is less expensive and more streamlined; it also has a lower charge per unit of rejections. However, if yous need to create a custom description of your services or goods that is non available in the preset list Plus provides, the hazard associated with the Standard option may be more beneficial for your situation.

One time you've submitted your application, you volition receive a confirmation receipt from the USPTO and a serial number that you tin employ to check the condition of your application in the Trademark Condition & Document Retrieval (TSDR) portal.

Key takeaway Cardinal takeaway: To register and trademark your make name, search the TESS database for like make names, fill up out the trademark application, and submit it to the USPTO for review.

Trademark FAQs

What is the difference between a merchandise name, trademark and service marking?

A trademark protects goods, and a service marker does the aforementioned for services. However, the give-and-take "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 production or service originates.

A trade name is what is used in place of the official business organization name. This is ofttimes indicated on paperwork with the phrase "doing business concern as" (DBA). It is used when the business name is considered besides lengthy or when the desired name was as well shut to 1 that already had a trademark or service mark. (Notation that a trade name does not signal the legally responsible entity behind the service or production.)

Should you lot trademark your company name?

It isn't necessary to register your mark to receive protectable rights. In the United states of america, you lot are granted "common-law rights" to a mark simply by using it equally part of your business. This means that you could begin using it and enforce your ownership of it through documentation of being the beginning to use it commercially. Even so, in that location are limitations on your rights with a common-law trademark.

Registering for a federal trademark has a number of advantages. Most importantly, it gives y'all legal buying of the marking and the sectional rights to use it anywhere in the nation as it relates to the goods or services you listed during registration. Common-law rights are express to the immediate geographic area in which yous are operating, and registering the name with your state only protects your rights within the borders of that land.

When y'all register your mark with the USPTO, there will be a public detect stating your buying, and information technology will be listed in the online database. With a federally registered trademark, you also have the pick to register your trademark with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to go on foreign goods from beingness imported with the same proper name. You'll also be able to utilize the federal symbol ® instead of the less enforceable ™ mark.

The name of your company is the main mode you lot present it to the world. Imagine someone else using your visitor's name to make offers that are antonymous to the mission and values of your business. If you want to beget your business the maximum legal protection, you lot will demand a trademark.

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

Who should trademark their business organization name?

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

It is as well important to consider the geographical area y'all will exist serving. The mutual-law trademark protection that you automatically receive by using the name is restricted to your immediate geographic area. If your business organization serves multiple states, you'll definitely want to apply for a trademark to protect your business.

If you have several product lines within your business that also accept unique names, y'all may want to trademark those too. For example, Ford is a trademark of the Ford Motor Company, which too has trademarks for lines of vehicles such equally the F-150, Mustang, Ranger and Explorer.

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

Should I get a trademark or LLC outset?

Whether you should annals for a trademark or an LLC first largely depends on your business organization goals.

A limited liability company (LLC) is a business structure nomenclature within the U.S. that describes a private limited company. It is usually issued past the state in which the company operates, although y'all tin can receive an LLC from any state. An LLC registration usually takes less than a day to procedure, while a trademark takes an average of 3 months.

If yous want to begin operating immediately, it makes sense to register for the LLC showtime. If you accept enough of lead time and are more interested in securing your federal rights to the name before yous put it out into the world, out of fear that it may exist co-opted by someone else, then it makes more sense to employ for the trademark first.

Does your business organization need a trademark registration correct away?

Your business does not need to register for a trademark correct abroad.

Typically you lot demand to be able to bear witness "employ in commerce" when registering for a marking, which ways that you lot should be able to prove information technology was existence used before you could register it. However, there is the option to apply for an intent-to-utilize (ITU) trademark.

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

There are only 3 periods within which yous can claim use in commerce:

Prior to approval for publication
Within six months of the issuance of the observe of allowance (NOA)
Within the fourth dimension granted by an extension

You can establish utilise in commerce in several different means, including the following:

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

There are 3 types of commerce under federal law:

Foreign commerce
Territorial
Interstate

What is non typically acceptable is intrastate commerce, meaning concern that is limited to the borders of a single land.

If your concern can't notwithstanding prove you are using the trademark in commerce, or if y'all won't be able to prove it within the confines of the ICU process, at that place is no reason to utilize for the trademark showtime.

If I register a business name, practice I need to register a trademark?

Registering a business name is typically washed at the state level and does non provide federal protection. If you are only going to provide services or products within that state, in that location is no reason to register for a trademark. If you are offering products and services in multiple states and desire federal protection for the name of your business, though, you lot would need to annals for a trademark.

How can you tell if someone else already has rights to a marking?

TESS makes information technology piece of cake to search the federal database of trademarks in various ways. The "basic word mark search" allows you to search names, words and phrases that have received a federal trademark.

The "word and/or design mark search" allows you to utilise either a design or words or a combination of the 2 to search the database. However, you will likely need to know the design codes to do this effectively.

In that location is as well the option to scan the directory or private fields within the database. If you aren't sure exactly what might have been trademarked but you know a full general appointment, you lot can search by registration or publication date.

If your registration is accepted, 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 elapse as long as it remains in use for the registered purpose. You see, a trademark does not grant y'all buying of the word, phrase or image; it gives yous the right to that word, phrase or image as it is used to identify the services or goods listed in the registration.

However, using it isn't quite enough. Y'all must give the USPTO proof that the trademark has remained in use by filing a Section 8 declaration between the fifth and sixth anniversary of the registration. This is a simple sworn statement.

Upon the registration's tenth anniversary, actual proof is required. This tin can be an prototype of your product or service using the trademark. Y'all must do this every 10 years.