Can You Trademark Your Business Name?

A trademark is a distinctive image, word or other thing that associates with a product or service. So, can you trademark your business name?

Most people think trademarks are logo oriented. In some ways, this is true. The Nike Swoosh is clearly a logo trademark that stands out in peoples minds. When you see it, you immediately think of Nike and its products. While logos can clearly be trademarked, what about a business name? The answer is both yes and no.

A trademark is a consumer oriented thing. While it protects the intellectual property of businesses, it is a legal step designed to protect consumers. The basic idea is a trademark should point to a particular product or service and only be used by the company backing those items. This helps consumers in two ways. First, it represents an assurance of a particular type of quality associated with the products or services provided by the company. Second, it precludes other companies from causing consumer confusion by infringing on that mark.

When it comes to your business name, you can trademark it if certain requirements are met. I am going to avoid the legal mumbo jumbo that confuses people, and stick with a general rule of thumb. If you use your business name in advertising or on the product or service, you can trademark it. A classic example is ?Google?. Google is both a company name and used on the service itself. When you go to the home page of Google, you see ?Google? prominently displayed. As a result, this business name can be trademarked.

If you do not use your business name in a direct communication to consumers, you cannot trademark it. Why? Well, there is nothing distinct about it that reminds consumers of the connect. TJMaxx is a well-known discount retail store. Most people have at least heard of the name. The company behind the name, however, is actually TJCos. Nobody has heard of ?TJCos? and certainly do not associate it with a store. As a result, this business name would be difficult to trademark, if not impossible.

If your name is going to be a fundamental part of your marketing effort, you should consider trademarking it. If it is not, then your probably should save your money. Obviously, each situation is different, so make sure you speak with legal counsel in your area.

Richard A. Chapo is a trademark lawyer with http://www.SanDiegoBusinessLawFirm.com.

Patent - History Of U.S. Patent Office

In this article we're going to do a brief historical review of the United States Patent Office.

The first national patent system was influenced by Thomas Jefferson in 1790. This was actually added to the United States Constitution in order to protect the rights of inventors. From this began the growth of the American corporation. Even though the original thirteen colonies has individual patent laws it wasn't until this constitutional act that the patent system became uniform for everyone.

Actually, the modern concept of the patent itself was established in Great Britain in the year 1449. That year King Henry VI issued a patent to John of Utynam for stained glass manufacturing. The actual history of the English patent system is important for understanding the patent system of the United States but is not the focus of this article. There are plenty of documents online where this information can be found.

In the United States, congress actually passed several patent acts; one in 1790, one in 1793 and one in 1836. Each act added different things to the patent system as we know it today.

The patent act of 1790, the one influenced by Jefferson, required that all applications for patents had some kind of model, whether it be a drawing or prototype, to go along with the application. This was because Jefferson believed ideas should not be patentable.

The patent act of 1793 was actually a revision of the patent act of 1790 due to some differences of opinions between Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton who wanted to add provisions for overlapping patents, where two inventors applied for the same or similar patents. The act of 1793 created a patent board that was responsible for issuing patents. A two-thirds majority of the board, made up of the Secretary of State, Attorney General, and Secretary of War, would be required to issue a patent. This act was passed largely because of complaints by inventors that the act of 1790 was not sufficient to protect their rights as inventors.

It wasn't until the patent act of 1836 that the United States Patent Office was actually established. The patent office was created primarily because of the inefficiency of the other two acts in processing patents. Henry Ellsworth was mostly responsible for establishing this act. He was also appointed the first commissioner of patents.

Through this act a system was created for distributing new patents to libraries in every state. This way it would be easy for an inventor to research whether or not a patent existed for a particular invention. This would save the inventor a great deal of time applying for a patent that he couldn't get because it was already issued.

Much has changed in the patent office since those early days. What once took a relatively short period of time now takes years as far as securing a patent. Many times a patent isn't issued until long after the technology has been around for quite some time. Unfortunately in the current climate and with the rate of technological advances increasing everyday, patents are now viewed as nothing more than a bargaining chip in a court of law.

Your Independent guide to Patents

Trademark Your Business - Lessons Learned

Small business owners learn many lessons the hard way - through the school of hard knocks. I recently experienced my own tough lesson concerning the importance trademarking my business name. Like many solo-entrepreneurs on a tight budget, the thought of trademarking my business name was not high on my priority list. Had I placed more importance on it, I might have saved myself some anxious moments, not to mention a few hundred dollars in attorney fees!

As a member of a couple different virtual assistant membership organizations, I often look with interest at other VA's business names and website URL's. One day I noticed a new member announcement for one of the groups and saw a listing for VA Office Solutions. Now this one hit a little too close to home for me - after all, my business name is VA Office Solution. I also noticed that she had a domain name to match.

Have you figured out my first mistake yet? I could have kicked myself for not purchasing the domain name, http://www.vaofficesolutions.com, which is so close to my own domain name of www.vaofficesolution.com. After all, even some of my own clients inadvertently add an "s" to the end of my business name in correspondence. I certainly didn't want people to look for my business on the Internet, and mistakenly find this other website! This could potentially be very confusing for both of us, especially considering we both operate similar businesses and conduct our business virtually, working with people all over the country.

Well the first thing I did was a little research on this domain name. I was able to find the owner and saw that the name had only recently been purchased, and had only been purchased for a one year period. This indicated to me that this was a new business, and she had only just started using this name.

Then next step was to get some legal advice. I had met an attorney who specializes in trademark law at a networking event so I gave her a call and asked to meet with her. I learned that I definitely had a good case, as I'd been using the trademark since 2001. Even though I had not formally registered the trademark with the USPTO (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office), I still had first use of the trademark, which gives me certain rights.

After meeting with the attorney, I decided that my first step should be filing my trademark with the USPTO (http://www.uspto.gov). Now this is something that I could do myself, without paying an attorney, but taking into consideration my own time constraints and her expertise, I decided to let her handle it for me. Also, since there would need to be a letter drafted to the trademark infringer after my trademark had been filed, I just felt more comfortable letting my attorney draft a letter that would be effective enough to get the infringer to stop using the trademark and take the website down.

So how did it all end? Well I got my trademark registered and we sent the letter to the trademark infringer. She agreed to stop using the trademark and took the website down. All in all, the entire process took about three months. I feel very lucky though, as I was able to find this infringer very soon after she opened her doors for business. By getting it done quickly, it should not have been devastating to her business and did not have an apparent affect on my business.

So what should you consider when deciding if you should trademark your business name? First you should conduct some research to make sure you're not infringing on someone else's trademark. You may be forced to stop using it if that's the case. If you decide to trademark your business name, then you must be prepared to enforce your mark. If you allow others to use the mark, then you can face abandonment and risk losing your own trademark. You should also consider the domain name issue. Do not make the mistake I did and let someone else snatch up a domain name that matches your trademark.

Be sure to visit the U.S. Patent and Trademark office at http://www.uspto.gov, and then visit my attorney Heidi Pliam's trademark website, Trademark Edge, at http://www.trademarkedge.com. And if you're looking for a good trademark attorney, be sure to give Heidi a call! Her contact information is on the website.

Jean Hanson is a Certified Professional Virtual Assistant. Discover how partnering with a virtual assistant will give you more time to do the things you love to do! Visit her at http://www.vaofficesolution.com. Jean is also the author of the eBook, Virtualize Your Business - http://www.virtualizeyourbiz.com