Planning Ahead Saves Time & Money
You’re moving into your new house or apartment, and you’ve just bought a new dresser from IKEA that you must assemble. You take the box home, and you pull out the parts. You start assembling the dresser and everything feels great. It’s beginning to look a lot like the dresser that you saw displayed in the store. However, right as you think you’ve completed the job you realize that you’ve incorrectly attached the sideboards. None of the drawers can fit into the dresser properly. So what do you have to do to fix the mistake? You must take the whole dresser apart. That’s what can happen if you don’t have federal trademark rights in your business name. You have to start over.
Perhaps you come up with a business name that you really like. You’re really excited. You start developing products with your business name on it. Maybe you rent or buy a store front and want to put a sign out front. You put your business name on the side of your work truck. You start advertising. You have commercials, billboards, or ads on the internet. You start developing t-shirts and hoodies to promote your brand name. But then you find out your business name does not fall into a category that is protected by federal trademark rights. Or even worse, you find out someone else is using it and customers are confused as to which business is yours.
*See https://kinglawoffices.com/blog/civil-disputes/the-four-ws-of-trademarks/
What does this mean? It means if you want a brand name that is protectable you may have to rebrand and change your business name. Which may result in you having to repaint that truck, obtain new merchandise, change the sign outside your store, or file an amendment to the articles of incorporation or organization of your business. It will cost you. The risks and costs of having to re-brand are outweighed by the cost of consulting with an attorney to obtain a federally registered trademark.
Saving your Place in Line
Maybe you are still planning out your business and you are not engaging in commerce yet, but you have a mark you would like to use. Consulting an attorney about getting a federally registered trademark can help ensure that you don’t use someone else’s trademark. Using someone else’s trademark likely will result in litigation and more costs.
However, there are also ways to establish priority over others before you start using your brand name. An attorney at King Law can help you submit an intent-to-use application. This registration can then later be upgraded when you use the mark in commerce to prevent others from using your trademark. Filing an intent-to-use application shows that you had claim to the mark first. However, the intent-to-use application by it self does not stop others who use the mark in commerce
How Can I Get Started?
If you need to contact an attorney regarding a Trademark, contact King Law Offices by calling (888)748-KING (5464) or filling out our consultation form. Our attorneys understand that your mark is important to you and your consumers. Having an attorney register your Trademark is an investment for your and your business’s future. We will work to make sure that you and your consumers are protected by registering your Trademark.