Using A Mark You Cannot Trademark-Be Careful

When coming up with a logo or mark, there are plenty of options. Sometimes, people make a choice that cannot be trademarked and this leads to problems.

When you start a business, you probably have visions of huge success. At the same time, it can be difficult to plan for it when you are sitting in your home office or garage and just getting started. Unfortunately, this is when many of the most important steps are required to be taken. One is picking a mark to identify your products or services.

A mark is simply something that identifies your products or services to consumers. Classic examples of this include ?coca cola?, the Nike Swoosh and many others. When you see one of these marks, you immediately identify them with the company and product in question. In legal terms, the mark is indicative of a certain quality of products or services.

When coming up with your mark, you have to be careful. Not everything can be trademarked. For instance, ?Google? is unique and clearly something that can be trademarked. When you see the Google logo, you know it refers to a search engine that allows people to find things on the web. Now, what if Google was instead called ?search engine?? The phrase is already commonly used and associated with other sites providing search functions for consumers. As a result, it cannot be trademarked.

So, why does all of this matter. Try to look into the future for your business. What if you become a huge success? Remember, Microsoft started with a couple of people and so did Google. You could be the next one. That being said, what if you ?go big? with a mark that cannot be trademarked? Other businesses will be able to use your mark! If you want to talk about a business disaster, this is it.

Imagine if Google could not be trademarked. Every other search engine could use the term in their marketing and on their web pages. This would cause massive confusion among consumers. More importantly, those consumers would be diverted to competitors of Google. Do you think that would hurt Google?s bottom line? You bet.

When starting a business, try to use distinct names and logos that are not common place. Get your trademarks. As the business grows, consumers will come to know your mark and identify it with your product or service. This, of course, is the key to getting them to come back and buy from you.

Richard A. Chapo is with SanDiegoBusinessLawFirm.com - providing trademark registration services.

An Introduction to Trademarks

In marketing, there is a particular strategy known as branding. In many ways, trademarks are designed to protect your brand from use by others.

An Introduction to Trademarks

A trademark is a form of intellectual property. Intellectual property is owned by the person or business creating it. With practically all forms of intellectual property, however, you have to take steps to formally notify the world of your property and protect it.

A trademark is a distinctive mark used to identify a product, company, service or device. When you think about it, you are very familiar with trademarks. At the risk of being sued to the high heavens, the following are trademarks: Coca Cola, Pepsi, Google, EBay and Toyota. Each of these words mean something to you and are readily identifiable with a product or service in your mind. When you think of EBay, you immediately think of an online auction site that was originally created so the owner's girlfriend could trade Pez dispensers [true]. When you think of Toyota, you think of cars. This is the power of brand recognition and trademarks are used to protect them.

A trademark is a powerful thing when it comes to the law. If you obtain a trademark, it is binding nationwide and others are not allowed to infringe upon it in an effort to swipe your customers or confuse the public. With your mark, you can sue to stop the infringement and recover monetary damages suffered. Basically, a trademark is a hammer for stopping nefarious conduct cold.

To obtain a trademark, you must have patience, patience and more patience. The mark is obtained through the Patent and Trademark Office. It is a very slow process. You or your attorney do a search to make sure are not in conflict with any previous marks. You then file an application and begin waiting. Within 8 weeks, the Patent and Trademark Office will send you a notification indicating they acknowledge receiving your application. Just receiving it! You will then wait another 6 months or so to hear if the application is accepted. Often you will receive correspondence asking for clarification or raising a problem. You then provide a response and wait. Months will pass. Eventually, the back and forth will come to final result. If your trademark application is accepted, it will be published and you are protected. The process is so lengthy that it is not uncommon for it take well over a year for the application to be approved. In short, you are going to need a lot of patience.

While obtaining a trademark can take forever, it is well worth the effort. Once you have it, you can keep competitors and others from using the trademarked term you worked so hard to establish. Gerard Simington is with FindAnAttorneyForMe.com - an online trademark attorney directory