All You Need To Know About The Trademark Process.
While it may seem easy to setup shop with a new idea, product or a service, the real intricacies of doing business include a very important starting step for businesses, which is having a trademark registered in your name/business through a proper trademark process.
What Do We Know About Trademarks?
We know that a Trademark is something that protects businesses. A slightly detailed understanding of a Trademark would be, a representation of protection for brands, goods, logos and symbols, it helps track a product or service to its rightful owner and hence helps maintain a brands identity. It binds others/competitors from use of your brand name with proper permission or consent and makes them liable to legal action if they don’t.
That is what a trademark actually is and why its important to go through a trademark process to have it properly implemented for your brand.
How Important is Trademark Registration?
Although it might not be mandatory to register a trademark and keep using a brand, it however leaves you and your business open to infringements, and without a proper trademark registration process in place, it can also create loopholes which could be exploited by other brands and competitors.
While have a trademark registered offers you protect, safeguarding of your brand name and various legal rights to take action against unlawful use of your brand name, it is what separates strong and trusted brands from the rest.
A registered trademark which has gone through its due diligence and trademark process gives the owner exclusive rights to use a name, and helps businesses stop unlawful usage, counterfeits and similar illegal actions by others.
What goes into an effective Trademark Registration Process?
Getting a thorough and proper trademark registered is the best way to go for a brand as it offers comprehensive coverage. With this however it needs to be understood that a trademark registration process also requires proper documentation and the right requisites for registration. Some of the best trademark registration in USA follow a comprehensive process which starts with.
Understanding the USPTO ( United States Patent and Trademark Office). This is the office which looks after the regulation of all trademarks in the USA, be it a trademark registration process or infringement cases, the USPTO is the authority delegated for trademark registration process in USA.
Trademark registration services involves certain steps that need to be looked into when starting the process, these also include:
Filing Basis of trademark registration.
Keeping the USA in context, if a business wants to register a trademark in the country they must specify the basis for filing a trademark. This could be
- Use in Commerce Basis
- Intent-to-Use Basis
- Foreign Registration Basis
- Foreign application Basis
Each has their own requisites which need to be identified to the trademark registration authority in order for the relevant trademark registration process to start.
What is the Trademark Registration Process Like?
Any brand owner who wishes to register their trademark in the USA can follow steps given on the TEAS website, they are usually:
Step 1: Check Trademark Availability
Step 2: Application Filing
Step 3: Trademark Examination
Step 4: Publication of Trademark
Step 5: Trademark Opposition
Step 6: Trademark Registration
And how long does it all take?
So interestingly from Publication of Trademark, it takes 30 days for the Trademark to get cleared if no opposition is raised. After Trademark registration The USPTO will issue a Notice of Allowance approximately eight weeks after the mark is published. The applicant then has six months from the issuance of the Notice of Allowance to use the mark and submit a Statement of Use (SOU) or request a six-month extension to file the SOU.
Once the SOU meets the minimum filing requirements, the examining attorney will review it to determine its suitability for registration. If approved, the USPTO will issue the registration within two months.
Trademark filing is not linear and can contain lots of bounce back if the trademark registration process is not managed in a meticulous manner, some of the Best trademark registration in USA has gone through various processes and reruns in order to get the right protection they require for their brand, why do the hassle? Because it is a mandatory step in ensuring your brands health and safety.
