Tips from the Trademark Insider: Register Your Trademarks!

Sure it may seem obvious. But many don't do it until its too late. Register all marks in the United States Patent & Trademark Office.

Federal registration gives you nationwide priority to the mark as of the filing date of the application. A registration will prevent third parties from acquiring superior rights to the mark in remote areas or markets.

Also, the Trademark Office allows an “intent-to-use” application to be filed when the mark is not yet in use. The advantage of filing an “intent-to-use” application is that when your mark registers, you will obtain the filing date (which will obviously pre-date your first use date) as your priority date to the mark. Registration gives you an important advantage over those who attempt to use your mark after you file for registration.

The Trademark Company

Tips from the Trademark Insider: Make Your Marks Incontestable!

File an affidavit to make your mark incontestable. After five years of continuous trademark use, Section 15 of the Trademark Act allows you to make your right to use a mark incontestable under certain conditions. As long as there has been no final decision adverse to your claim of ownership and there is no current proceeding against the mark, you can file an affidavit in the Trademark Office to make the mark incontestable. If the mark becomes incontestable, it is protected from a variety of grounds of attack including descriptiveness and likelihood of confusion.

The Trademark Company

Tips from the Trademark Insider: Trademarks Are More Than Words.

Understand that trademarks are not limited to words and names. A trademark may include not only word marks, but also logos, taglines, designs, jingles, sounds, colors, characters and even fragrances. The Trademark Act defines a mark as “any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof” that is used to identify and distinguish goods or services from those of others. You might be surprised to know that NBC owns a federal registration for the sound of its three chimes and Kellogg owns a variety of registrations for “Tony the Tiger.”

These “non-traditional” trademarks can have as much value as word marks. Make sure to protect your entire portfolio.

The Trademark Company

Tips from the Trademark Insider: Rules for Interactive Online Services.

As part of your company's chat rooms, bulletin boards, e-mail exchanges, and other member-interactive online services, regularly distribute rules that prohibit the posting of any copyright or trademark-infringing materials (along with other rules). In addition, be sure to immediately remove infringing material if it comes to your association's attention.

The Trademark Company

Press Release: The Trademark Company Acquires New State-of-the-Art Facility

We are pleased to announce that as we begin 2010 The Trademark Company has purchased new offices in Cary, NC which will serve as the company’s headquarters. The new state-of-the-art facility is scheduled to be delivered in the late Spring of this year and, in conjunction with the significant hardware and software implementation already in place, will continue to cement our company as the industry leader in trademark services.

The Trademark Company

Tips from the Trademark Insider: Protect Your Client Database.

As the name, addresses and other contact information contained in your client directory, mailing labels, and/or client or customer lists are generally are not protected by trademarks it is imperative for your company to use a "shrinkwrap" license, click-and-accept feature, or other form of contractual commitment to place explicit, binding limits and conditions on the use of your client list by employees, clients, vendors and others.

Failure to do so may leave your company with little or no recourse to prevent unrestricted use of this most valuable information by those who obtain a copy of it.

The Trademark Company

Tips from the Trademark Insider: Police Your Trademarks.

Police your trademarks against infringement. When you have a successful product or service, it is inevitable that others will try to reap the benefit of the associated goodwill that you have developed. For example, competitors may try to imitate your company’s name, the name of the product, or even the colors of packaging and marketing materials. You must do something if you know an infringer is using your mark or a confusingly similar mark. If you allow others to use your mark, over time the mark may lose its ability to indicate origin and become unenforceable

As part of your trademark enforcement program, you should consider having a commercial watch service like those provided by The Trademark Company monitor at least your most valuable trademarks.

The Trademark Company