Use a Registered Trademark – A How-To Guide
You have a registered trademark – well done. But your work isn’t over. Now, you have to do several things to keep your trademark registration alive, and you must avoid a few other [...]
Patent scams
After filing a patent application, you will often receive patent scams: letters demanding payment. The same thing happens after you file a trademark registration application. These letters look [...]
Common law trademarks
In the U.S., trademark rights are built through use, not by registration. If you don’t register your mark, you will have common law trademark rights. So why go through the time and [...]
Trademark classes
When planning to register a trademark, you must choose which trademark classes to use for your goods and/or services. If you have questions about what trademark classes you should be considering, [...]
Trademark on a geographical location
You can register a trademark on a geographical location. And there can be good reasons for choosing a place name as part of your trademark: it may suggest a quality associated with that place, [...]
May the Fourth be with you!
Today, Star Wars fans rejoice as we greet each other with a cheery “May the Fourth be with you!” In case you’ve never heard of this, or seen social media light up with it every [...]
“Use in commerce”, “intent to use”, and trademarks
To apply for a Federal trademark registration, you must either have used the mark in commerce, or intend to use the mark in commerce. How do you know what is a “use in commerce”, and [...]
Trademark registration benefits – why register?
In the U.S., trademark rights accrue through use of the mark in commerce – click here for for my post on what trademarks and servicemarks are. Why register a mark? There are many trademark [...]
Trademarks: what are they?
In the U.S., trademark rights accrue through use of the mark in commerce. But what is a trademark, or a servicemark? How are marks evaluated? What is a mark? A trademark identifies the source of [...]