Trademarks - What You Ought to Know

Trademark law affects every business in the United States. Don't assume that your new business name, new product name, slogan or logo has not already been used commercially OR trademarked!

No business name may be used in any one of the following cases, IF there is a conflict or similarity in sound, appearance or meaning & industry:

• A Federally registered trademark anywhere in the U.S., or
• A State registered trademark in any state they do business in, or
• Used within same geographic trade area with "first use" Common-Law protection.

There are over 2,500,000 Trademarks, and over 16,000,000 commercial Common Law trade names in use. ANY existing Federal Trademark, State Trademark or commercial Common Law use takes precedence over your new business or product name, IF there is a conflict or similarity in sound, appearance or meaning & industry.

When you create a new business name, product name, slogan or logo, you will begin to establish your legal rights to your name in the geographic trade area where you do business based on Common-Law usage.

However, the question is: Is your trade name truly available?

It is a company's obligation and it is in their best interest to enforce its marks. Trademark owners have up to six years to find and order businesses to change any infringing trade name.

Infringing trademark companies could face costly attorney bills ($200 to $350 hour), immediate renaming of their company or product, recall of products, forfeiture of profits, re-marketing of the new name, and marketing change-over for a new name, including logo, signs, corporation, forms, checks, packaging, yellow page listings, web site, etc.

Comprehensive research is truly a need for any new business name, new product name, new slogan or new logo.

Shannon Moore is the General Manager, East Coast for TradeMark Express. Since 1992, TradeMark Express has met the needs of their clients with comprehensive research, application preparation, attorney referrals and trademark consultation. For further details, please visit us on the web at http://www.tmexpress.com

What Is Trademark Law

Trademarks can be anything from words, phrases, logos, symbols, or slogans, anything that will identify or distinguish a person's goods or services manufactured or sold to indicate their sources. Trademarks allow companies and businesses to be identified by their symbols or logos by what they are selling. For example, Nike is identified by the check symbol, and people identify that symbol with athletic wear and sneakers, that is Nikes symbol and cannot be used by anyone else. McDonald's symbol is the Golden Arches, when people see those they know who those arches belong to and what they sell. There are all different types of trademarks; a service mark is the same as a trademark except it promotes a service instead of a product. A certification mark is a symbol, device, or name used by an organization to vouch for their products. A collective mark is a symbol, mark, phrase, or label, used by member of an organization to identify goods, members, products, or services they provide. Only members of particular groups or organizations are allowed to use the collective mark, even the group itself cannot use collective marks, only the members of the group. Protecting your trademark with trademark law consists of preventing others from using your mark. If others were able to use your trademark, how would the consumers distinguish your product from others?

The law will favor business that first use the mark they choose, copyright laws come from the Lanham Act. This act is designed to prevent trademark infringement. The law prohibits uses of trademarks, trade names that are likely to cause confusion about the source of a product or service. Infringement law protects consumers from being misled by the use of infringing marks and also protects producers from unfair practices by an imitating competitor. The law does not give much security to trademarks that consist of common or ordinary words because they are not essentially unique. A person's name, geographical terms, and terms used to describe the product or service will receive little protection from the law. However, these trademarks can be protected if they gain distinctive recognition from long use and marketing. Trademarks that are not used, abandoned, or used to generically describe a type of goods or service, cannot be protected because if used, will cause confusion about the product among the public.

Most believe that when they register a specific domain name, the trademark is solely their own and nobody else can use it. This may not be true however, not only must you register the domain, but you have to use the business name enough to achieve distinction. The best way to do this is through customer awareness and marketing. Search around before you choose a trademark and make sure that it is not already in use. It would be very costly if an infringement lawsuit was brought against you for using someone else's trademark. Using a professional service to make a trademark search for you may be a good idea. Leeanna is an expert author writing for Trademark Law