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Brand Identity

Trademarking is an important step in ensuring the identity of a brand. It will prevent competitors from stealing your customers by imitating your brand. It may also provide some protection if those imposters do something that harms your reputation. There are intellectual property laws in place to prevent competitors from stealing creative ideas, names, or symbols from other businesses. Trademarking is simply good business – it is simple and inexpensive.

Is It Necessary To Register A Trademark?

In fact, trademarking is a relatively simple process. Experts recommend trademarking because trademark litigation lawsuits are complex and expensive, and it is preferable to apply for official registration rather than face a battle later-on. Certain small business owners are put off from trademarking because they believe the process is overly complicated.  Some small business owners believe that trademarking is only for large corporations. However, safeguarding a company’s hard work and brand identity is just as important for small businesses as it is for large corporations.

Trademark Attorney

While it is not required for US citizens to hire an attorney when registering a trademark, the USPTO strongly advises working with an attorney to prepare the application. It’s understandable that new business owners are concerned about their bottom line. The costs of developing a product, marketing it, and hiring employees can quickly add up. As a result, some owners may wish to take advantage of one of the many legal sites offering DIY trademark searches and registrations in-order-to save money. Unfortunately, while using these sites may be less expensive in the short term, registering your trademark without the assistance of an experienced attorney may end up costing you more in the long run.

The Process

You should first determine whether the mark is available for registration before filing the trademark application. DIY searches on legal sites or even Google are very cheap, but they only alert you to exact matches of your desired trademark. However, most trademark disputes do not arise from exact matches, but rather from similar matches that may cause confusion in the marketplace. Certain trademark attorneys use more sophisticated software. Unlike do-it-yourself trademark searches, the software used by trademark attorneys searches for indirect matches to your business name, logo, slogan, or any other trademark you intend to register. 

When the application is submitted to the USPTO, the assigned examiner will look for similar matches to the mark. Following the filing of the trademark application, an attorney can respond to non-substantive Office Actions on your behalf in a timely and correct manner. This may help you avoid problems with your application once it reaches the USPTO examiner. If the examiner finds that the mark is already in use, your registration may be denied. You will then have to invest more time and money in reworking the mark, and you may even have to pay to refile the application at a later date. Throughout the process, many legal decisions must be made.  Working with an experienced trademark attorney frees you to focus on growing your business, from selecting the correct classes of goods and services to responding to USPTO Office Actions.