FREE Guide for Registering a Trademark USA [ How to File a Trademark, Useful Resources ]

In business, you want to make sure that everything that you have created is duly protected. This would include your business’s logo. The logo is one of the easiest ways of identifying a business as it is unique and probably one of the most distinguishing factors that you can associate with a business. But wouldn’t it be frustrating knowing that you have spent an extensive amount of time in coming up with a logo that you thought was exclusive for your business only to find out that your logo has already been appropriated by another business?

In the US, the USPTO or the United States Patent and Trademark Office is the agency that would issue businesses with a trademark assignment form should they file for a trademark for a certain mark of their business. Marks can either be words (slogan), symbol, names, or designs that are associated with the company. They are the agency that will help protect your property from any unauthorized use. In this article, we will help you gain a better understanding of how you can make your mark eligible for a trademark. Keep reading for more information.

How to File a Trademark

Filing for a trademark can be quite a tedious task and is also not an instant thing. It goes through a rigorous process. So we would like to give you a few tips on how we can make the process less of a hassle for you and be able to efficiently file for that trademark.

Research the Trademark You Have in Mind

One of the best ways of being able to successfully file for a trademark is ensuring that your idea, product, or mark has to be unique. To make sure that what you are filing a trademark for is unique and different is to do an in-depth research. Through your research, you can find out whether your idea, product, or mark is not close to any other business’s ideas or products. With research, you can avoid having any idea, product, or mark be too confusingly similar to another business.

The Types of Trademark Applications and Filing

There are two types of trademark applications: principal and supplemental. When you file through a principal register, you will be able to have national recognition and protect you and your property from any infringement all throughout the United States of America. On the other hand, filing through a supplemental register will protect your mark, ideas, or products. However, even if a trademark is only registered under a supplemental register, trademark owners can still sue for infringement if they want to.

Being Generic Is Not an Option

When it comes to registering for trademarks, your slogan or your logo should be described in a specific manner. For example, if you were to make a logo, you can be specific about what the image you will be using will look like, the background, the colors, the text size and font style, and other specific things that you would want to include in your logo.

Useful Resources

One of the most useful resources that there is out there is the homepage of the USPTO. It’s another great place to get any of the initial things that you would want to learn about filing a trademark. You may also want to check out How to Obtain Permission to Use Copyrighted Material in case you want to learn about making use of material that is protected by copyrights.