Can I Register Trademark On My Name In Usa

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

Registering a trademark for your company is a large footstep that helps you protect your brand identity from misuse or theft. Registering a trademark is a fairly straightforward process that you tin complete in just a few like shooting fish in a barrel steps.

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

What is a trademark?

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

Steps to trademark your company proper noun

Trademarking your visitor'south name is non as simple as filing for an LLC and may take more time than you imagine.

1. Search

First, you need to search the federal database to ensure the proper noun you desire to trademark isn't already protected as a trademark. You tin can do this with the USPTO's Trademark Electronic Search System, besides known as TESS. You should search not only for the name you want, merely for similar names. Your registration could be denied if the name is too similar to a name already registered within the aforementioned grade.

While this sounds straightforward, it can exist complex. Iguana Water ice Foam and Iguana's Ice Cream might be too similar, for instance. It can also mean that a registered trademark simply looks or sounds like your marking or that the meanings are similar.

two. Apply

Once y'all've searched and cleared the name yous want to trademark, information technology's time to prepare your trademark application. You can file for a proper noun already in commercial use or with an intent to use the 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 accept to exist the same as the name of the applicant)
A drawing of the desired mark (if you are only applying for the proper noun and don't want to include a pattern element, you lot only type in the proper noun)
A thorough description of the marker
A specific listing of services or goods covered past the trademark application
The class of services or goods
An instance of the mark in utilize every bit well as the date information technology was offset used
A dated signature from you or an authorized representative
The appropriate fee for the type and number of classes included on the application

three. File

Once y'all accept completed the awarding, you lot accept 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. Nevertheless, if you need to create a custom description of your services or goods that is not available in the preset list Plus provides, the chance associated with the Standard pick may be more than beneficial for your state of affairs.

Once you've submitted your application, you will receive a confirmation receipt from the USPTO and a serial number that you can utilize to bank check the status of your application in the Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) portal.

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

Trademark FAQs

What is the difference betwixt a merchandise name, trademark and service mark?

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

A trade name is what is used in identify of the official business name. This is often indicated on paperwork with the phrase "doing business equally" (DBA). Information technology 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 mark. (Note that a trade name does not indicate the legally responsible entity behind the service or product.)

Should you trademark your company name?

It isn't necessary to register your marker to receive protectable rights. In the United States, you are granted "mutual-constabulary rights" to a marking simply by using it as function of your business. This means that you could brainstorm using it and enforce your ownership of it through documentation of beingness the commencement to utilise it commercially. However, 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 y'all legal ownership of the mark and the exclusive rights to use it anywhere in the nation as it relates to the goods or services you listed during registration. Common-law rights are limited to the immediate geographic area in which you are operating, and registering the name with your land simply protects your rights within the borders of that state.

When you annals your mark with the USPTO, in that location will be a public notice stating your ownership, and it will be listed in the online database. With a federally registered trademark, you also accept the selection to annals your trademark with the U.Due south. Customs and Border Protection to keep foreign goods from existence imported with the same name. You'll also 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's proper noun to make offers that are antithetical to the mission and values of your business. If you desire to afford your business the maximum legal protection, you will need a trademark.

When you file for a trademark, it only covers i nomenclature. Each additional nomenclature must be noted in the awarding and will incur an additional charge. There are 45 classes to exist considered. For example, if your concern produces vehicles, yous would want a Course 12 trademark. If yous additionally wanted to sell clothing with the name of the aforementioned company on it, you would need to also take 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 organisation name?

If your business has a unique name, it tin can be trademarked as long as information technology isn't too similar to another name that has already received a trademark. For case, if the name is too vague, like The Ice Cream Store, it is unlikely to be eligible for a trademark. Something like Iguana Ice Cream would exist more likely to receive a trademark, since information technology joins mutual words in a unique style.

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

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

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

Should I become a trademark or LLC first?

Whether you lot should register for a trademark or an LLC starting time largely depends on your business goals.

A express liability company (LLC) is a business construction nomenclature within the U.S. that describes a private express company. It is usually issued by the state in which the company operates, although you lot can receive an LLC from any land. An LLC registration normally takes less than a solar day to procedure, while a trademark takes an average of three months.

If you lot want to begin operating immediately, it makes sense to annals for the LLC first. If yous take plenty of atomic number 82 time and are more than interested in securing your federal rights to the name before you lot put it out into the world, out of fright that it may exist co-opted by someone else, then information technology makes more sense to apply for the trademark offset.

Does your business need a trademark registration right away?

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

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

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

At that place are only three periods within which you can claim use in commerce:

Prior to approval for publication
Within 6 months of the issuance of the notice of allowance (NOA)
Within the time granted by an extension

You can found use in commerce in several different ways, including the following:

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

There are three types of commerce under federal law:

Foreign commerce
Territorial
Interstate

What is not typically acceptable is intrastate commerce, significant business concern that is limited to the borders of a unmarried state.

If your business can't all the same prove y'all are using the trademark in commerce, or if you won't exist able to show it within the confines of the ICU process, at that place is no reason to apply for the trademark first.

If I annals a business name, do I need to annals a trademark?

Registering a business name is typically done at the state level and does not provide federal protection. If you are merely going to provide services or products inside that state, there is no reason to register for a trademark. If y'all are offering products and services in multiple states and want federal protection for the name of your business, though, you would need to register for a trademark.

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

TESS makes it easy to search the federal database of trademarks in various means. The "basic discussion mark search" allows you to search names, words and phrases that have received a federal trademark.

The "word and/or design marker search" allows you to use either a design or words or a combination of the ii to search the database. However, y'all will likely need to know the design codes to exercise this effectively.

There is also the choice to browse the directory or individual fields within the database. If you aren't sure exactly what might have been trademarked but you know a full general date, you tin can search by registration or publication date.

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

A trademark registration is valid for every bit long as you are willing to maintain it. In one case a trademark is issued, it does not elapse every bit long as it remains in use for the registered purpose. You see, a trademark does not grant you ownership of the discussion, phrase or paradigm; it gives you lot the correct to that give-and-take, phrase or image as it is used to place the services or goods listed in the registration.

Notwithstanding, using it isn't quite enough. You must requite the USPTO proof that the trademark has remained in use by filing a Section 8 declaration between the fifth and 6th anniversary of the registration. This is a simple sworn argument.

Upon the registration'due south 10th ceremony, bodily proof is required. This can exist an epitome of your production or service using the trademark. You must do this every 10 years.