A trademark, which protects the brand name of a business, can include a word, symbol, logo, or any combination used to distinguish the respective products and/or services from similar ones in the market.
Trademark protection is territorial and exists only within the boundaries of the country in which the trademark has been filed. Entities looking to expand their business internationally must ensure that their trademark is adequately protected in the respective countries where they intend to start their business.
One of the leading economies on the planet, the United States of America has its own federal law and respective state laws pertaining to trademarks and a centralized governing authority called the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
USA Trademark Registration Offers The Following Benefits To The Business:
Exclusive use of the trademark in the United States.
Ability to prevent others from using a confusingly similar trademark.
Use of the ® symbol to indicate that the trademark is registered.
Enhanced ability to enforce the trademark against infringers
Easier to transfer or sell the business or trademark.
Increased brand recognition and goodwill.
Potential for international registration.
The USPTO’s Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) database displays all the registered trademarks and pending trademark applications at one place. You can do a free online search to find if there are any existing, identical marks that may likely cause confusion to the proposed mark. To understand how this works, it is important to know:
How to Make USA Trademark Search?
The applicants can use any of the three search options, namely Basic word mark search, design mark search and combination of word and design mark search by specifying the “Search term”. All the trademarks related to the specified term will be pulled up at once.
How To Read The Results
When a particular result is clicked the following details will be displayed:
US trademark Serial number
Mark type
Description
Status – whether pending or active
Owner’s name, address and entity type
Prosecution history
Proceedings, if any
The trademark specialists in Abhinav Suresh Advocate CA will help clients understand the results as well as offer you appropriate advice.
The USPTO has classified all the goods and services under 45 classes, under which the trademarks have to be registered. These classes are also called as NICE classification (NCL). For example, all musical instruments fall under Class 15; Class 14 contains all precious metals and their alloys, precious stones, etc.
The class has to be identified based on the product or service.
The trademark application must include the following details:
Applicant’s Details:
The type of business entity – LLP, Private Limted, or LLC, business name and contact details like email address and mobile number.
Format Of Mark:
The intended mark could of three formats:
Standard Character Format:
This format is when the mark consists of words, letters, numbers or combinations without no specific designs and font styles
Special Character Format:
If the mark contains any stylized words or numbers in particular typeface, colour and styling as in “Google”, “ebay”, “Kellogg’s” then it would be of special character format.
Sound Mark:
Sound marks are for businesses who want to register their jingles and chimes. For example, Intel’s five-note logo.
The intended trademark’s specifications must be carefully drafted to include all the products/services your business offers. It should be as per the acceptable entries of the ID Manual of USPTO, which contains the list of acceptable identification of goods and services. If there is already an accurate description of the products or goods and services, that can be used, else the description has to be given in your own words.