The Rewards of Having a Registered Trademark and the Application Process

If you are looking at putting together a business, especially a large one, there are a lot of requirements that you, as the owner or the proprietor, must be able to meet. Local business permits and state regulations are just the beginning.

Then there is as any other paperwork that various organizations and associations deem appropriate for your particular situation. So, while you are spending so much time making sure you have all your ducks in a row, why not take a few more minutes and register a trademark?

You may be wondering why bother with a trademark for your business. Well, let's look at what a trademark is first. A trademark is basically telling the world that this is your property, be it a product or an idea. The sticky thing is that when you are talking about trademarks, you need to be patient because the wheels turn slowly.

One thing that you will want to make sure of before you go through the time and expense of the trademarking process is that your product will sell. So do your market research to be sure there is a place for it in people's lives. If your business is already established, you will most likely want to register a trademark so nobody can use your name or logo.

The process of actually securing your trademark is not a difficult one. You can simply go down to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Or, even more simple, log on to their website (http://uspto.gov) where you will find enough information on the application process and process. The part that will irritate you is not the process of applying for the trademark, but the waiting will get you every time. That is why patience is so important when you are applying for a business trade mark.

But, if you want to register a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office, wait you will do. The nice thing is that the process itself is rather uncomplicated. The first thing you do is check to make sure nobody else has already made a trademark on an idea similar to yours. You may want to hire a professional in this area just to make sure you do not spend unnecessary money.

After that, just fill out the application forms and submit at the local branch office or even on line. At this point the USPTO will designate a lawyer to your application. They will either accept or reject the application. If there are any questions on the application, the lawyer will be in touch with you during the process.

Keep in mind that the United States Patent and Trademark Office is part of the government so it will be a while before you get your trademark registered.

Another thing to know before you start getting your trademark registered is that it is not necessary to register it at all. However, it is advisable to do so because you will be at an advantage of those who don't. For one thing it keeps competitors in check, because they will know they cannot take your idea or property and claim it as their own. This may lead to confused customers and lost money. When you register your trademark and it is used illegally by another party, you can sue them because you are protected by law.

This is not to say that confusion will not happen, but if you take the time to get your trademark registered, there is no reason to worry. You also get to add the R with a circle to your logo as this is the mark that lets every body know this is yours exclusively. This is essentially your business' identity.

Now when it is said that you have to be patient and the process is slow, it is important to understand just how slow. After you have filed your application, you can expect to wait for about two months before you get notified via postcard from the USPTO verified that the application has been received.

You will not hear another word from them for about six months or longer. Then you will receive word that the application has been accepted, but won't know it has been published and approved for another month or so. And that is if the process goes smoothly. If there are problems, add two to four months to that.

Joseph Savard has been in the business of trademarking for 15 years now and is the best selling author of the ebook "The Trademarking Handbook" To Earn 70% Commissions By Simply Referring Others To His Website... Click Here or visit >http://www.trademarkinghandbook.com

How To Avoid Legal Trouble From Trademark Infringement When You Buy A Domain Name

So you have a hot idea for a website, or maybe you want to capitalize on a hot new product that has just been released. There are some things that you will want to know first before you get yourself in a lot of hot water.

Choosing a domain name isn't really rocket science but it is very important. You want to choose something that is as short as possible, easy to pronounce and remember for marketing purposes, and if at all possible you want to get your main keywords in the domain name. All that aside, you also have to be careful that you don't step on the toes of a person or company who may be inclined to sue you.

For example, judges have ruled against domain name squatters in every case where they registered a celebrity's name. They will also rule against companies that infringe upon other companies. A good case in point would be the case a couple of years ago between the World Wrestling Federation and the World Wildlife Foundation. The World Wrestling Federation called itself the "WWF", put up a website at wwf.com, and the World Wildlife Foundation filed a trademark infringement suit against them. The Wildlife Foundation won because they had been in existence for many years before the wrestling firm and therefore the World Wrestling Federation had to change its name to World Wrestling Entertainment. Obviously this cost them a great some of money to change their name that appeared on millions of marketing products all over the world as well as the expense they had put up on their website and online marketing.

Another more recent issue that is still ongoing is the battle between Apple and the V.O.I.P. product "iphone" from Cisco. Apple announced they would be bringing a product to market called the Apple iPhone to go along with their other products that start with an "I". Cisco promptly filed for injunctive relief and as of this writing the issue is unresolved.

There are a few basic guidelines that will help keep you out of trouble when you are choosing a domain name so you don't run into legal trouble from violating someone?s trademark. Let's take a look at them.

First off you need to realize that a name that is used to identify a particular service or product is a recognized trademark. Trademarks that are deemed to be suggestive and memorable are granted protection by both state and federal law.

A confliction of trademarks occurs when one trademark is in conflict with another and the deployment of both is probably going to be confusing to customers or would be customers concerning the company's products or services. As I illustrated above, when the legal issue is with a later user of a trademark, the law rules that the first commercial user of the trademark is the legal owner and is therefore given protection. The loser will be forced to cease using the trademark and may even be compelled to pay damages to the original owner, particularly if it is determined that they were malicious in their intent.

The smart thing to do is to consult a trademark lawyer and have them check out your idea for a domain name before you invest too much in developing and marketing it.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Beach, Florida. Find more about this as well as intellectual property attorneys at http://www.focusonip.com

Has It Been Done Before? Optimize Your Patent Search Using Patent Scraping Technology

Since the US patent office opened in 1790, inventors across the United States have been submitting all sorts of great products and half-baked ideas to their database. Nowadays, many individuals get ideas for great products only to have the patent office do a patent search and tell them that their ideas have already been patented by someone else! Herin lies a question: How do I perform a patent search to find out if my invention has already been patented before I invest time and money into it?

The US patent office patent search database is available to anyone with internet access.

http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html

Performing a patent search with the patent searching tools on the US Patent office Webpage can prove to be a very time consuming process. For example, patent searching the database for "dog" and "food" yields 5745 patent search results. The straight-forward approach to investigating the patent search results for your particular idea is to go through all 5745 results one at a time looking for yours. Get some munchies and settle in, this could take a while! The patent search database sorts results by patent number instead of relevancy. This means that if your idea was recently patented, you will find it near the top but if it wasn't, you could be searching for quite a while. Also, most patent search results have images associated with them. Downloading and displaying these images over the internet can be very time consuming depending on you internet connection and the availablity of the patent search database servers.

Because patent searches take such a long time, many companies and organizations are looking ways to improve the process. Some organizations and companies will hire employees for the sole purpose of performing patent searches for them. Others contract out the job to small business that specialize in patent searches. The latest technology for performing patent searches is called patent scraping.

Patent scraping is the process of writing computer automated scripts that analyze a website and copy only the content you are interested in into easily accessible databases or spreadsheets on your computer. Because it is a computerized script performing the patent search, you don't need a separate employee to get the data, you can let it run the patent scraping while you perform other important tasks. Patent scraping technology can also extract text content from images. By saving the images and textual content to your computer, you can then very efficiently search them for content and relevancy; thus saving you lots of time that could be better spent actually inventing something!

To put a real-world face on this, let us consider the pharmaceutical industry. Many different companies are competing for the patent on the next big drug. It has become an indispensible tactic of the industry for one company to perform patent searches for what patents the other companies are applying for, thus learning in which direction the research and development team of the other company is taking them. Using this information, the company can then choose to either pursue that direction heavily, or spin off in a different direction. It would quickly become very costly to maintain a team of researchers dedicated to only performing patent searches all day. Patent scraping technology is the means for figuring out what ideas and technologies are coming about before they make headline news. It is by utilizing patent scraping technology that the large companies stay up to date on the latest trends in technology.

While some companies choose to hire their own programming team to do their patent scraping scripts for them, it is much more cost effective to contract out the job to a qualified team of programmers dedicated to performing such services.

Learn more about the other uses of scraping technology such as website maintenance and data collection at http://www.scrapegoat.com.

Patent - Business Method Patents - Part II

In this second article on business method patents we're going to continue our discussion on what happens when two companies are battling it out for the same patent.

There are two ways that an Internet patent can be used. The first way is to use it offensively against a major competitor to help eat into their market share. The second way is to use it defensively against a major competitor who is threatening to sue based on one of their patents. Case studies show that most companies are less likely to go to court when the opposing company can show that it has a patent. Usually these companies agree to a truce by cross licensing each other's patents.

Here is an example of this.

Company A and Company B both sell tickets online. This includes services for exchanging unwanted tickets and also earning rewards for being a frequent purchaser. Company A happens to hold a patent on a method of exchanging tickets. Company B has a patent on a way of exchanging rewards points. Even though each company believes that the other company is infringing on their patent neither one goes to court over it. Instead they decide to cross license their patents so that each company can perform both services, exchanging tickets and rewards points.

So how is it determined who gets a patent? What happens when business A applies for a patent but business B can show that it was using the method for a year prior to filing? Business B can either stop the patent from going through right then and there or it can wait and invalidate the patent at a later time. The key to this whole procedure is that the use of business B's method MUST have been public knowledge prior to business A filing for a patent. If business B used the patent confidentially then business A will be granted the patent even though business B used the method first. However, in a 1999 amendment to this law, even though business A gets the patent, business B can still use the method without any penalty.

An example of this is as follows. Business A has been using a certain method of accounting for many years but never disclosed it to the general public. Company B, over the course of time and totally unaware that business A has already created this method, develops the method themselves and files for a patent. When company B finds out that company A has been using this accounting method they file a lawsuit against company A. Company B is granted their patent but company A is allowed to continue its use of the method without any penalty of law.

Just as a note. If company A had been using the method publicly before company B filed for the patent, the patent issued to company B would have been invalidated or possibly would have never been granted at all.

In the next article in this series we're going to discuss the legal requirements for getting a business method patent.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Patents

Inventions, Patents and Profit

New Inventors

My name is Clyde Knight Jr founder of Knite Enterprises LLC. I have visited many newsletters and inventor resource websites where I found and read many interesting and informative articles. These web sites covered areas of inventing dealing with everything from creating and developing your ideas to selecting the right self-help resources.

There is a plethora of invention submission and promotion type corporations out there, as we have seen advertised on television and radio commercials. I have even experienced first hand how these companys work. They advertise one thing, but the result is a twist in legal technicalities that most inventors under estimate. In short, these invention submission corporations present the unwary, sometimes enthusiastic and often times legally nave inventor with a professionally looking office, with personable representatives and artistically enhanced forms and documents all pleasing to the eye and designed to persuade the inventor to sign away their legal rights.

Furthermore, self-help websites including the USPTO website do offer free and inexpensive resources. These resources usually explain details of the law that allows independent inventors to protect their own inventions by submitting their own ideas to the USPTO or applying for a patent themselves. Other methods of self-protection offered on these websites include retaining a combination of inventing professional to help them to submit their own patent application with out having to pay an attorneys high legal fees. Thus, saving them a costly expense.

In either of the cases sighted above what usually happens in the end is that the inventor is disillusioned, discouraged and frustrated. The inventor is discouraged by the bureaucratic red tape, precise and strictly adhered to submission protocols of the USPTO with associated astronomical expense on the one hand or legally frustrated by the immoral but legal bate and switch tactic of an unscrupulous submission promotion company on the other.

To see how these companies use the law to their advantage point your browser at http://www.ftc.gov/foia/frequentrequest.htm. There you will find which submission promotion companies are listed. In addition, the type of fraud they used on various inventors.

Many invention resource websites fail to explain that your invention may not be feasible, plausible or even marketable and that to pay for a patent application when your idea will not bring a profit may be an expense that you simply cannot afford. Additionally, they usually do not explain in a logical and clear manner the facts needed for the inventor to make an informed decision. They do not explain the facts gleaned from an objective and complete explanation of the cost and profit probability ratios - that is - the money that you spend to patent your idea vs. the probability of making a profit from your patent.

I have researched and have pain stakingly explained to the average inventor how to use the law to protect their invention with out having to disclose to a third party where their invention in all probability is most likely to be stolen. I also explain the myths, cost and profit probability ratios of spending $3,500 - $10,000 or more, when such an expense may not be in their best interest.

Our service is tailored for people who do not have or cannot afford to spend thousands of dollars on a patent. I explain that to spend this kind of money does not necessarily give the protection desired and that it does not guarantee profit. At Knite Enterprises, we take the inventors creativity and their right to claim it very seriously. We assist the inventing industry by taking the confusion out of the notion of claiming your invention and by making our services available to those of us who may have creative talent but are confused and discouraged from moving forward by financial constraints and responsibilities. To see what we are all about please visit us on line at: http://www.DIYinventor.com

Clyde Knight Jr is the founder of Knite Enterprises LLC. He started this online business in 1998. Knite Enterprises LLC recognizes the many problems that new inventors face when deciding on how to protect their ideas. Knite Enterprises LLC answers many of these questions and explains the advantages and disadvantages of traditional IP Protection.

Clickbank Vendors: Two Simple Ways You Can Help Affiliates Protect Their Sales.John Hocking

1) How To Remove Your Affiliates Clickbank Id From The URL.

As a merchant, you can hide the clickbank affiliate id for your affiliates by creating a redirect page and pointing your default hoplink to the redirect.

When some uses your hoplink http://hop.clickbank.net/?affid/yourid, the cookie will be set and they will land on your redirect page.

The redirect will send them to your domain without adding the ?hop= information. The cookie is already set and does not need to be shown.

This will help protect your affiliates commission and give your site a more professional appearance.

In the code examples below, you will need to replace [ and ] with less then and greater then symbols.

Create a file called hoplink.php

Add the following code

[?php
header("Location: http://www.yourdomain.com"); exit;
?]

Upload hoplink.php to the root of your domain.

Login into your clickbank account. Click to view or modify your account settings. Click to modify your account.

Under Business Info, change the url of your website to be http://www.yourdomain.com/hoplink.php

Click on save changes.

Now when a visitor clicks on a hoplink, it appears that they came directly to your site and the affiliate's id is no longer exposed. For this technique to be completely effective, the affiliate needs to cloak the hoplink as well.

2) How to Cloak Your Clickbank Vendor Id Using PHP

Most clickbank affiliate theft is caused by the fact that is easy to rebuild a hoplink and get credit for your own purchase. All you really need to know is the vendor id.

All you have to do is look at the source code of a typical sales link and you will see the vendor id.

For example:
http://www.clickbank.net/sell.cgi?YourVendorId/1/Product_Description

To rebuild the hoplink you simply use http://hop.clickbank.net/?AffiliatesId/YourVendorId

Now when you click on the hoplink and the original affiliate has lost a sale.

As you can see, without knowing the vendor id, you can not successfully rebuild the hoplink and the affiliates sale would be protected.

Below is an example of how to do this in PHP.

You will need to replace [ and ] with less then and greater then symbols.

Create a file called order.php

Add the following code

[?php

header("Location: http://www.clickbank.net/sell.cgi?YourVendorId/1/Product_Description");

exit;
?]

Just replace YourVendorID with your Clickbank ID Replace 1 with your product number Replace Product_Description with your Product Description

Upload order.php into the same folder as your sales page.

Now link to order.php instead of using the raw order link and your Vendor ID is never exposed

This will make it very hard for affiliates to rob other affiliates of their commissions.

I encourage you to make these simple changes to protect the commissions of your affiliates.

John Hocking created http://www.guidetoebookmarketing.com, A resource site for those looking for information on creating and marketing ebooks. You will find hundreds of articles, ebook reviews and resource links.

Trademarks in India: Law & Procedure

Legislation

The Indian law of trademarks is enshrined in the Trade Marks Act, 1999. The Act seeks to provide for the registration of trademarks relating to goods and services in India. The rights granted under the Act, are operative in the whole of india.

What is a Trademark

A TRADEMARK is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs is used in the course of trade which identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods or services of one enterprise from those of others. A SERVICE MARK is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. Normally, a mark for goods appears on the product or on its packaging, while a service mark appears in advertising for the services.

A trademark is different from a copyright or a patent or geographical indication. A copyright protects an original artistic or literary work; a patent protects an invention whereas a geographical indication is used to identify goods having special characteristics originating from a definite territory.

Classification of Goods and Services*

Almost all jurisdictions including India employ a classification system in which goods and services have been grouped into classes for registration. Most countries follow the same classification system, namely the International Classification of Goods and Services, which consists of 34 classes of goods and 8 classes of services. (The WIPO recently revised the Nice Classification, adding three service classes (43, 44, 45) and restructuring Class 42, retaining certain services. This provision has not yet been implemented in India).

For example, printed matter, newspaper and periodicals are classified in Class 16 while services in the field of publication comes under Class 41. Time Incorporated, USA is the registered proprietor of the trademark ?TIME? in about 150 countries.

Rights conferred by registration

The registration of a trademark confers on the registered proprietor of the trademark the exclusive right to use the trademark in relation to the goods or services in respect of which the trademark is registered. While registration of a trademark is not compulsory it offers better legal protection for action for infringement.

Who Can Apply For A Trademark

Any person can apply for registration of a trademark to the Trademark Registry under whose jurisdiction the principal place of the business of the applicant in India falls. In case of a company about to be formed, anyone may apply in his name for subsequent assignment of the registration in the company's favor.

Trademark Search

Before making an application for registration it is prudent to make an inspection of the already registered trademarks to ensure that registration may not be denied in view of resemblance of the proposed mark to an existing one or prohibited one.

Filing and Prosecuting Trademark Applications

An application for trademark may be made on Form TM-1 with prescribed fee of Rs. 2500/- at one of the five office of the Trade Marks Registry located at Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Ahmedabad depending on the place where the applicant resides or has his principle place of business. The application is examined to ascertain whether it is distinctive and does not conflict with existing registered or pending trademarks and examination report issued. If it is found be acceptable then it is advertised in the Trade Marks Journal to allow others to oppose the registration. If there is no opposition or if the opposition is decided in favour of the applicant then the mark is registered and a certificate of registration is issued. If the applicant's response does not overcome all objections, the Registrar will issue a final refusal. The applicant may then appeal to the Intellectual Property Appellate Board, an administrative tribunal.

A common ground for refusal is likelihood of confusion between the applicant's mark with registered mark or pending prior mark. Marks, which are merely descriptive in relation to the applicant's goods or services, or a feature of the goods or services, may also be refused registration. Marks consisting of geographic terms or surnames may also be refused. Marks may be refused for other reasons as well.

Duration of a Trademark

The term of a trademark registration is for a period of ten years. The renewal is possible for further period of 10 years each. Unlike patents, copyrights or industrial design trademark rights can last indefinitely if the owner continues to use the mark. However, if a registered trademark is not renewed, it is liable to be removed from the register.

Use of the "TM," "SM" and "(R)" Symbols

Anyone who claims rights in a mark can use the TM (trademark) or SM (service mark) designation with the mark to alert the public of the claim. It is not necessary to have a registration, or even a pending application, to use these designations. The claim may or may not be valid. The registration symbol, (R), may only be used when the mark is registered.

Remedies For Infringement And Passing-Off

Two types of remedies are available to the owner of a trademark for unauthorized use of his or her mark or its imitation by a third party. These remedies are: - ?an action for infringement' in case of a registered trademark and ?an action for passing off*' in the case of an unregistered trademark.

The basic difference between an infringement action and an action for passing off is that the former is a statutory remedy and the latter is a common law remedy. Accordingly, in order to establish infringement with regard to a registered trademark, it is necessary only to establish that the infringing mark is identical or deceptively similar to the registered mark and no further proof is required. In the case of a passing off action, proving that the marks are identical or deceptively similar alone is not sufficient. The use of the mark should be likely to deceive or cause confusion. Further, in a passing off action it is necessary to prove that the use of the trademark by the defendant is likely to cause injury or damage to the plaintiff?s goodwill, whereas in an infringement suit, the use of the mark by the defendant need not cause any injury to the plaintiff.

However, the registration cannot upstage a prior consistent user of trademark in India, for the rule followed is ?priority in adoption prevails over priority in registration`. In many other jurisdictions like Saudi Arabia, Nepal etc. where the first party to register a trademark is considered the party to own the mark, regardless of prior use of the mark.

*Passing off originated with the tort of deceit. The doctrine is based on the principle that one trader is not to sell his goods under the pretence that they are the goods of another trader. Historically, marketplace has been concerned with guaranteeing consumers the quality of goods that they had come to rely upon in the course of trade. To further that guarantee, the common law developed the tort of passing off, which helped to assure that a person was representing his goods as being his and not the goods of someone else.

Safeguards to be taken by the proprietor of a registered trade mark to protect his rights: -

The proprietor should use and renew the trademark regularly and in time. If the trademark is misused by others he should file a suit for infringement and passing off and also take criminal action.

The proprietor should keep a watch in respect of trademarks published in the Trade Marks Journal and institute opposition proceedings if identical or deceptively similar trademarks are advertised. He should initiate rectification proceedings if an identical or deceptively similar trademark is registered.

Use Of Trademarks In Foreign Countries

Trademark rights are granted on a country-by-country basis. An Indian registration provides protection only in India and its territories. If the owner of a mark wishes to protect a mark in other countries, the owner must seek protection in each country separately under the relevant laws.

International trademark protection

There is no system as yet wherein a single trademark application is sufficient to protect the trademark right internationally. However, Paris convention* provides certain privileges to member countries in trademark registration. A party that files their first trademark application in a member state of the Convention, such as India, can within six months of that filing date file applications in other member countries claiming the priority of the first application. If such a trademark is accepted for registration it will be deemed to have registered from the same date on which the application is made in the home country.

It is also possible to utilize multinational filing systems in certain regions in order to obtain trademark protection. For example, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have a single trademark registry, commonly referred to as the Benelux Trademark Register. The European Union consisting of 15 countries has adopted its own trademark system, known as the Community Trademark. The African Organization for Intellectual Property (OAPI), a group of African nations, have replaced their national trademark offices with a common trademark office which offers a single trademark registration valid in all of the member states.

Almost all countries have trademark offices in which applications may be filed. Therefore, when contemplating trademark protection in various countries, it is most helpful to start with a list of countries where registered trademark protection is available. Deciding where to register a trademark involves various considerations. Countries where a trademark is currently in use, but prior use of trademark is not recognized, should be the first to be considered for seeking registered protection. If commencing use shortly or expanding use to other countries within a few years, then such countries should also be included. The last group of countries should be those have a history of unauthorized registration of other's trademarks.

* Paris Convention is the most basic and important multilateral convention relating to intellectual property, including trademarks, of which India is a member. It defined the meaning and scope of industrial property rights protection and established basic principles and rules.

P.M. George Kutty Attorney at Law of http://www.pmgip.com

Pendants - The Best Gift To the Woman in Your Life

Quoting the famous line by Groucho Marx - Behind every successful man is a woman, behind her is his wife”, let us begin by complimenting women for what they are and what they can turn any person into. Right from the stage of birth and infancy, it has been women who have helped each of us come into this beautiful planet, and learn a plethora of actions, thoughts and words.

But sometimes, words fail us when we want to appreciate the commendable capabilities of every woman in this world. Whether it is a sweet homemaker or a 9-6 executive, there is something about each of them which makes them so special, so exquisite. And when you feel words fail you, the best way to express your gratefulness or your appreciation for them is by gifting them something that each of them just love wearing – jewellery.

Every woman is a young girl at heart, who loves to decorate herself with finery of all sorts. She is beautiful, and she knows how to enhance her beauty. And if you really want to impress her or make her feel special, your best bet lies in a pendant. Through Pendants, you can express what you feel for her in the best possible way. You can choose pendants that represent her or a pendant that best expresses your emotions for her.

The best part about gifting pendants to a woman is that you can gift such jewellery to anyone in your life. A pendant can make a very cherished and memorable gift for your Mom. You can gift a pretty little pendant to your best friend – that tells her what a special place she has in your life. Pendants make for ideal gifts when you are going out on a date. And if you have forgotten your marriage anniversary – may God and beautiful pendants save you!

Paul Shane cherishes a hobby of studying and collecting jewellery, to dig out the making and story behind them, especially the rare or exquisite ones, also the Pendants being used for manufacturing the jewellery. He also loves studying consumer behaviour related to jewellery selecting and buying. At present he is associated with a leading group called E-Beads Limited.

Do You Need Your Business Name Trademarked

 

Do You Need Your Business Name Trademarked November 2001
By Bob Brolhorst

A name is important to a business. It's so important, in fact, that names can
be trademarked, which means they're owned. Kind of like domain names, once
it's used it's gone. But you can't trademark a person's name if it doesn't
belong to you. I could not trademark Jay Leno no matter how hard I'd want
to try.

You apply for a trademark through the Department of Commerce. You can
either do it yourself or hire an attorney. I did it myself to save money. Once
the application goes in, you can use "tm" after the slogan or name to indicate
you lay claim to it. It takes up to one year to get permission and the
certificate from the Department of Commerce, although their goal is to
shorten that to a matter of 4-6 months, but it was worth every penny of
investment.

To own a name or a slogan, to make it truly yours, to gain the recognition that
marketing that slogan can give you, trademark it and protect it. Every seven
years, renew it.

Yes, trademarks are necessary, because it gives you an identity, a goal, and a
source of pride toward what you took your time and money to protect your
business.

What can happen if you don't trademark your business name? You could be
given a court order to reliquish part or all of your profits from a product
that you sell. How is this possible?

Let's say for an example that you use a business name that has been
trade marked by another company. By law, if this other business owner
finds out that you are selling products under her/his business name and
you are taken to court a judge can rule that you give up all your profits
to the business owner that has the business name trademarked.

Bob Brolhorst
Wave 5 Marketing
bbrolhorst@wave5marketing.com
http://www.wave5marketing.com