How To Register Your Company Name And Logo

Registering your brand proper noun as a trademark is a elementary iii-pace procedure.
You can annals your make 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 small 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 y'all protect your make identity from misuse or theft. Registering a trademark is a fairly straightforward process that you can complete in simply a few easy steps.

This guide will walk y'all through each step needed to register and trademark your make name, and answer some ofttimes asked questions about registering your trademark.

What is a trademark?

Co-ordinate to the United States Patent and Trademark Function (USPTO), a trademark is "a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the appurtenances of ane party from those of the others."

Steps to trademark your company proper noun

Trademarking your company's name is not as simple equally filing for an LLC and may take more time than you imagine.

i. Search

Beginning, y'all demand to search the federal database to ensure the name y'all want to trademark isn't already protected as a trademark. You can do this with the USPTO's Trademark Electronic Search System, also known equally TESS. You should search not just for the proper name you want, but for like names. Your registration could be denied if the name is also similar to a name already registered inside the aforementioned class.

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

two. Use

Once you've searched and cleared the name you desire to trademark, it's time to prepare your trademark application. You can file for a name already in commercial utilise or with an intent to use the name in the future.

The trademark application itself has ten components:

The name and address of the applicant
The citizenship and legal entity of the applicant
A proper noun and address for time to come correspondence (this does not have to be the same as the name of the bidder)
A cartoon of the desired mark (if you lot are just applying for the name and don't want to include a design element, you but blazon in the name)
A thorough clarification of the marker
A specific listing of services or goods covered by the trademark application
The class of services or goods
An example of the mark in use besides equally the appointment it was showtime used
A dated signature from you lot or an authorized representative
The appropriate fee for the blazon and number of classes included on the application

3. File

Once you take completed the application, yous have two filing options: TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard. The Plus option is less expensive and more streamlined; information technology besides has a lower rate of rejections. However, if yous demand to create a custom description of your services or appurtenances 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 you lot've submitted your application, y'all will receive a confirmation receipt from the USPTO and a serial number that you lot can apply to cheque the condition of your application in the Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) portal.

Key takeaway Central takeaway: To register and trademark your make proper noun, search the TESS database for similar make names, fill out the trademark awarding, and submit it to the USPTO for review.

Trademark FAQs

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

A trademark protects goods, and a service marker does the aforementioned 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 imitation claims of where a product or service originates.

A trade name is what is used in place of the official business name. This is ofttimes indicated on paperwork with the phrase "doing business equally" (DBA). It is used when the business name is considered too lengthy or when the desired name was likewise close to one that already had a trademark or service marking. (Notation that a trade name does non indicate the legally responsible entity behind the service or product.)

Should yous trademark your visitor 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 merely by using it as part of your business. This means that you could brainstorm using it and enforce your ownership of it through documentation of being the first to use information technology commercially. Nevertheless, there are limitations on your rights with a common-police force trademark.

Registering for a federal trademark has a number of advantages. Near importantly, information technology gives you lot legal ownership of the marker and the exclusive rights to use it anywhere in the nation every bit it relates to the appurtenances or services y'all listed during registration. Common-law rights are limited to the firsthand geographic area in which you are operating, and registering the proper name with your land only protects your rights inside the borders of that state.

When you lot register your marking with the USPTO, there volition be a public observe stating your ownership, and it will be listed in the online database. With a federally registered trademark, you besides have the option to register your trademark with the U.S. Customs and Edge Protection to go along foreign appurtenances from being imported with the same name. You'll also be able to apply the federal symbol ® instead of the less enforceable ™ mark.

The name of your company is the main fashion y'all present information technology to the world. Imagine someone else using your company's proper noun to make offers that are antithetical to the mission and values of your business organisation. If you want to afford your business the maximum legal protection, yous will need a trademark.

When you file for a trademark, it only covers i classification. Each additional nomenclature must be noted in the awarding and will incur an additional accuse. There are 45 classes to be considered. For example, if your business produces vehicles, y'all would desire a Form 12 trademark. If you additionally wanted to sell clothing with the name of the same company on it, you would need to also take a Class 25 trademark. Consider exactly how you lot volition be using the proper noun to determine which form or classes yous should list it under.

Who should trademark their business name?

If your business has a unique name, it can be trademarked every bit long every bit it isn't too similar to some other name that has already received a trademark. For example, if the name is too vague, like The Ice Cream Shop, 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 common words in a unique style.

It is besides important to consider the geographical surface area you volition exist serving. The common-law trademark protection that you automatically receive by using the proper noun is restricted to your firsthand geographic area. If your business organization serves multiple states, you'll definitely want to apply for a trademark to protect your business concern.

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

Did you know? Did yous know? The common-law trademark protection that you automatically receive for your business proper 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 first?

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

A limited liability company (LLC) is a business structure classification within the U.S. that describes a individual limited visitor. It is usually issued by the state in which the company operates, although you can receive an LLC from any country. An LLC registration ordinarily takes less than a solar day to process, while a trademark takes an average of 3 months.

If you lot want to begin operating immediately, it makes sense to register for the LLC kickoff. If y'all have plenty of lead time and are more interested in securing your federal rights to the proper name before you put it out into the earth, out of fear that it may exist co-opted by someone else, and so it makes more sense to apply for the trademark get-go.

Does your concern need a trademark registration right away?

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

Typically you need to be able to prove "use in commerce" when registering for a marker, which means that you lot should be able to prove it was existence used before you could annals it. Nonetheless, there is the option to apply for an intent-to-use (ITU) trademark.

If yous proceed with an ITU trademark, you still have to demonstrate your apply of the mark in commerce by completing the documentation and paying the additional fees within the allotted timeframe prior to the marking'due south registration.

At that place are just 3 periods within which yous tin claim use in commerce:

Prior to blessing for publication
Inside six months of the issuance of the detect of allowance (NOA)
Within the fourth dimension granted past an extension

You tin establish utilize in commerce in several unlike means, including the post-obit:

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

There are three types of commerce under federal law:

Foreign commerce
Territorial
Interstate

What is non typically adequate is intrastate commerce, significant business organization that is limited to the borders of a unmarried state.

If your business organisation can't however show yous are using the trademark in commerce, or if yous won't exist able to show it within the confines of the ICU procedure, there is no reason to utilize for the trademark first.

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

Registering a business name is typically done at the land level and does not provide federal protection. If you are simply going to provide services or products within that state, there is no reason to annals for a trademark. If you lot are offering products and services in multiple states and want federal protection for the name of your business, though, you would demand to register for a trademark.

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

TESS makes it easy to search the federal database of trademarks in various ways. The "basic word marker search" allows you to search names, words and phrases that accept received a federal trademark.

The "word and/or blueprint marker search" allows you lot to use either a blueprint or words or a combination of the two to search the database. Yet, yous volition probable need to know the design codes to do this effectively.

In that location is also the option to browse the directory or individual fields inside the database. If you aren't certain exactly what might have been trademarked but yous know a full general appointment, you 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 information technology. One time a trademark is issued, information technology does non expire equally long as information technology remains in use for the registered purpose. You run across, a trademark does not grant you buying of the word, phrase or image; it gives you lot the correct to that word, phrase or image every bit information technology is used to identify the services or appurtenances listed in the registration.

Nevertheless, using it isn't quite enough. You must give the USPTO proof that the trademark has remained in utilise past filing a Section viii annunciation betwixt the fifth and 6th anniversary of the registration. This is a simple sworn statement.

Upon the registration'south 10th anniversary, actual proof is required. This can exist an paradigm of your product or service using the trademark. Y'all must do this every 10 years.