These days, it’s not uncommon for businesses to pop out as many people are exploring their options as entrepreneurs. When doing anything business-related, all decisions must be calculated as it always involves spending time, money, and effort that you don’t want to go to waste.
Welcome to a dummy’s guide to trademarking where you’ll understand more about what trademarks are, what they can do for your business, and if you should be getting one for your brand. Read on!
If you have a business you definitely have unique elements that set you apart from businesses similar to yours. Examples of those can be your brand name, logo, and tagline. Aall of these brand elements help your brand stand out and draw the attention of people to ultimately buy your product or service.
Trademarks are a legal tool created to protect your branding elements. It is a registration process that guarantees that no ther business can use your brand name, logo, or tagline which can cause confusion to consumers. Trademarks are an essential piece of intellectual property that can make increase the value of your brand.
The quick answer to this is to file for a trademark immediately. Most successful businesses even file even before they launch their products or services. A great example would be Netflix. Even before they sold their first DVD they decided to have their name registered with the USPTO. Their brand alone is worth billions of dollars—who would’ve thought!
You might be thinking “but I don’t know if my brand would succeed”. Well what would you regret more, trademarking a brand that doesn’t make it, or leaving your successful brand unprotected and having it stolen from you. Another thought to ponder on is the cost of protecting your trademarked brand vs going to court to protect your untrademarked brand. In the end, you’ll lose thousands of dollars without a trademark.
Before you read the step-by-step process of trademarking, you have to understand that filing and registering your trademark is not a matter of days. It can be somewhat complicated and can take time ranging from a year to several years, depending on how complex your brand is.
These are the following steps you should take when filing for a trademark:
A lot of trademarking websites suggest a search on existing trademarks that might prevent you from successfully getting your registration, but they only tell you to do “knock-out searches” that won’t give you enough information. What you need to do is a comprehensive search that will give you a better opinion of your brand name’s registrability.
Once you’ve established that your brand name is trademarkable, you can now start the application process. You can file a brand name that you’re currently using or file one with an intent to use, which means a name that you will be using in the future.
A USPTO application process has 10 parts:
Once you have all the requirements needed in your application, you can now move on to the actual filing process. Since you are filing with the USPTO, you have two options: the TEAS Standard and the TEAS Plus. While the price looks like the biggest difference between the two, the choice you make is associated with the risks you’re willing to take.
The TEAS Plus is a more streamlined process; it has a set list of descriptions of the goods and services you’d want to file your trademark under. The risk of rejection is very low but it isn’t as flexible as TEAS Standard. That said, if you want a very specific description of the goods and services you offer, you might want to choose the more expensive but more flexible option—TEAS Standard.
After submitting your application online, USPTO will send you a confirmation receipt and a serial number you can use to check on the status of your trademark application. You may check on your mark’s status through their Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) portal.
