How To Register My Company Name And Logo

Registering your brand name as a trademark is a elementary three-step procedure.
You can register your brand name with the USPTO to protect your intellectual belongings from misuse.
It is not immediately necessary to secure a trademark, though it could benefit your brand.
This article is for pocket-size business owners who are ready to register and trademark their make name or wondering whether they should.

Registering a trademark for your company is a large step that helps you protect your brand identity from misuse or theft. Registering a trademark is a fairly straightforward process that you tin complete in only a few like shooting fish in a barrel steps.

This guide will walk you through each step needed to register and trademark your brand name, and answer some frequently asked questions nearly registering your trademark.

What is a trademark?

According to the Usa Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a trademark is "a give-and-take, phrase, symbol, and/or blueprint that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of 1 political party from those of the others."

Steps to trademark your company proper name

Trademarking your company'southward name is non as elementary equally filing for an LLC and may take more than time than you imagine.

1. Search

Outset, you demand to search the federal database to ensure the name yous desire to trademark isn't already protected equally a trademark. Y'all can do this with the USPTO's Trademark Electronic Search System, also known every bit TESS. You should search not merely for the name you want, simply for similar names. Your registration could be denied if the name is too like to a name already registered within the same class.

While this sounds straightforward, information technology can be complex. Iguana Ice Cream and Iguana'due south Water ice Cream might exist too similar, for case. It tin can also hateful that a registered trademark simply looks or sounds similar your mark or that the meanings are like.

2. Apply

In one case you've searched and cleared the name you want to trademark, it's time to gear up your trademark application. You tin file for a proper noun already in commercial utilize or with an intent to utilize the name in the future.

The trademark application itself has 10 components:

The name and address of the applicant
The citizenship and legal entity of the applicant
A name and accost for future correspondence (this does not have to be the aforementioned as the name of the applicant)
A drawing of the desired mark (if you are merely applying for the name and don't want to include a design element, you only blazon in the name)
A thorough description of the mark
A specific list of services or goods covered past the trademark application
The grade of services or appurtenances
An instance of the mark in apply every bit well equally the appointment it was first used
A dated signature from you lot or an authorized representative
The appropriate fee for the blazon and number of classes included on the awarding

3. File

Once you lot accept completed the application, y'all have ii filing options: TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard. The Plus selection is less expensive and more streamlined; information technology likewise has a lower rate of rejections. However, if you need to create a custom clarification of your services or appurtenances that is not bachelor in the preset listing Plus provides, the risk associated with the Standard option may be more beneficial for your situation.

One time you've submitted your awarding, yous will receive a confirmation receipt from the USPTO and a serial number that yous can use to check the status of your application in the Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) portal.

Key takeaway: To register and trademark your brand proper name, search the TESS database for like brand names, fill out the trademark application, and submit information technology to the USPTO for review.

Trademark FAQs

What is the deviation between a trade name, trademark and service marker?

A trademark protects goods, and a service marking does the same for services. However, the word "trademark" is sometimes used for both types of marks. Both are designed to limit the ability of competitors to mislead consumers with faux claims of where a product or service originates.

A trade proper noun is what is used in identify of the official business proper noun. This is ofttimes indicated on paperwork with the phrase "doing business organization as" (DBA). It is used when the business organization name is considered as well lengthy or when the desired proper noun was too shut to i that already had a trademark or service mark. (Annotation that a trade proper name does not indicate the legally responsible entity behind the service or product.)

Should you trademark your visitor name?

Information technology isn't necessary to register your mark to receive protectable rights. In the United states of america, you are granted "common-law rights" to a mark simply by using information technology as part of your business concern. This means that you could begin using it and enforce your ownership of it through documentation of being the kickoff to utilize it commercially. Still, there are limitations on your rights with a mutual-constabulary trademark.

Registering for a federal trademark has a number of advantages. Virtually importantly, it gives y'all legal ownership of the mark and the sectional rights to use information technology anywhere in the nation as information technology relates to the goods or services yous listed during registration. Common-police rights are limited to the immediate geographic area in which you are operating, and registering the name with your country only protects your rights inside the borders of that country.

When you lot register your mark with the USPTO, in that location volition be a public observe stating your ownership, and it volition be listed in the online database. With a federally registered trademark, you also have the pick to register your trademark with the U.Southward. Community and Border Protection to continue strange goods from beingness imported with the same proper name. You'll also exist able to utilise the federal symbol ® instead of the less enforceable ™ mark.

The proper name of your company is the main way yous present it to the world. Imagine someone else using your visitor'due south name to make offers that are antithetical to the mission and values of your business. If you want to beget your business the maximum legal protection, you volition need a trademark.

When yous file for a trademark, it simply covers 1 classification. Each additional classification must be noted in the application and volition incur an boosted charge. There are 45 classes to be considered. For instance, if your business organization produces vehicles, y'all would want a Class 12 trademark. If you additionally wanted to sell habiliment with the name of the aforementioned company on it, y'all would need to also take a Grade 25 trademark. Consider exactly how yous will exist using the proper name to determine which form or classes you should list it under.

Who should trademark their business name?

If your business has a unique name, it can be trademarked as long every bit it isn't too like to some other name that has already received a trademark. For instance, if the name is besides vague, like The Ice Cream Shop, it is unlikely to be eligible for a trademark. Something like Iguana Ice Cream would be more than probable to receive a trademark, since it joins common words in a unique mode.

It is also important to consider the geographical area you will exist serving. The mutual-police trademark protection that you lot automatically receive by using the name is restricted to your firsthand geographic area. If your business serves multiple states, you'll definitely want to apply for a trademark to protect your business organisation.

If you lot have several production lines inside your business organisation that likewise have unique names, you may want to trademark those as well. For instance, Ford is a trademark of the Ford Motor Company, which too has trademarks for lines of vehicles such as the F-150, Mustang, Ranger and Explorer.

Did you know? The mutual-law trademark protection that you automatically receive for your business concern proper name is just restricted to your immediate geographic area. If your concern operates in multiple states, you lot should use for a trademark.

Should I get a trademark or LLC start?

Whether you should annals for a trademark or an LLC kickoff largely depends on your business goals.

A limited liability company (LLC) is a business organisation structure classification within the U.Southward. that describes a private limited visitor. It is usually issued by the state in which the company operates, although you can receive an LLC from any state. An LLC registration normally takes less than a twenty-four hours to process, while a trademark takes an average of three months.

If you desire to begin operating immediately, it makes sense to register for the LLC kickoff. If you accept plenty of lead fourth dimension and are more interested in securing your federal rights to the proper noun before you put it out into the world, out of fear that it may exist co-opted past someone else, then it makes more than sense to use for the trademark first.

Does your business need a trademark registration right away?

Your business does not need to register for a trademark correct away.

Typically you need to be able to evidence "use in commerce" when registering for a mark, which means that you should be able to prove it was being used before y'all could annals information technology. However, there is the selection to apply for an intent-to-use (ITU) trademark.

If you go on with an ITU trademark, y'all withal have to demonstrate your employ of the mark in commerce by completing the documentation and paying the additional fees within the allotted timeframe prior to the mark's registration.

There are only three periods within which y'all can claim use in commerce:

Prior to approving for publication
Within 6 months of the issuance of the find of allowance (NOA)
Inside the time granted past an extension

You tin establish use in commerce in several different ways, including the following:

Placing the mark on your goods sold or your website for goods sold
Using the marker in association with services being sold

There are iii types of commerce under federal law:

Foreign commerce
Territorial
Interstate

What is not typically adequate is intrastate commerce, meaning business that is limited to the borders of a single land.

If your business tin can't yet prove you are using the trademark in commerce, or if y'all won't be able to prove it within the confines of the ICU procedure, there is no reason to apply for the trademark first.

If I annals a business concern name, do I need to register a trademark?

Registering a business organization name is typically done at the state level and does not provide federal protection. If you are but going to provide services or products within that state, there is no reason to annals for a trademark. If yous are offer products and services in multiple states and want federal protection for the name of your concern, though, you would need to register for a trademark.

How can you tell if someone else already has rights to a mark?

TESS makes it piece of cake to search the federal database of trademarks in various ways. The "bones word mark search" allows you to search names, words and phrases that have received a federal trademark.

The "word and/or pattern marking search" allows you to utilize either a design or words or a combination of the 2 to search the database. However, you volition likely demand to know the design codes to do this effectively.

There is also the choice to browse the directory or private fields within the database. If you aren't sure exactly what might have been trademarked but you know a general appointment, y'all can search past registration or publication appointment.

If your registration is accepted, how long is that registration valid?

A trademark registration is valid for as long as you are willing to maintain information technology. Once a trademark is issued, it does not expire as long as information technology remains in use for the registered purpose. You encounter, a trademark does not grant you lot ownership of the word, phrase or image; it gives you the right to that word, phrase or image as it is used to identify the services or goods listed in the registration.

Still, using information technology isn't quite enough. You must give the USPTO proof that the trademark has remained in use past filing a Section 8 declaration between the 5th and sixth anniversary of the registration. This is a unproblematic sworn statement.

Upon the registration's 10th anniversary, bodily proof is required. This can exist an epitome of your product or service using the trademark. You must do this every x years.