Trademark Attorneys

Registering your trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) secures legal rights to your trademark and grants you exclusive nationwide use of the mark for the goods and services listed in the registration. It acts as a public notice of your ownership, significantly enhances your ability to enforce your rights against others who may attempt to use similar marks, and allows for filing infringement lawsuits in federal court. Registration can also help prevent the importation of counterfeit goods and facilitates the expansion of your business abroad. Only registered trademarks can use the ® registered trademark symbol.

To register a trademark, you must file an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), providing details about the mark and the goods or services it will be used with. This includes selecting the appropriate class out of 45 possible classes, providing a suitable specimen showing how the mark is used in commerce, and paying the required fees. The USPTO then reviews your application to ensure it meets all legal requirements, including distinctiveness and potential confusion with existing marks. The process requires careful preparation and follow-up on any Office Actions refusals or objections.

The TM (for “trademark”) and SM (for “service mark”) symbols can be used to signify that you are attempting to claim rights to a mark for goods or services, respectively, before registration with the USPTO. The ® symbol, however, signifies that your mark is officially registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), affirming your ownership and exclusive usage rights. The ® symbol indicates that a mark is federally registered and provides legal notice of your ownership and exclusive rights to use the mark. Using the ® symbol with an unregistered mark is unlawful and can undermine the validity of your trademark application.

While many names and logos can be trademarked, there are specific criteria they must meet to qualify for protection. The mark must be distinctive, not merely descriptive or generic, and must not be likely to cause confusion with existing trademarks. Marks that are purely descriptive can sometimes achieve trademark status through secondary meaning if they acquire distinctiveness in consumers’ minds over time. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) evaluates each application on these bases to determine eligibility for registration.