Effective Trademarks - How to Select a Good Name

In this article, we'll be covering the basics of trademark law in regards to selecting good trademarks. This includes what a trademark is, what types of things can be trademarks, how you can protect your trademarks, and how to prevent infringing on other people's trademark rights.

There are two kinds of laws that protect intellectual property: federal law and state law. Sometimes you need both laws because they apply in different situations or provide protection for similar ideas. But first, let's talk about what a name is. A name is the title or designation for something or someone that distinguishes it from other things or people with similar characteristics - like your sunglasses being called "Blue Glasses" instead of "Yellow Glasses.

"Trademark" is a special type of name that identifies something (like the brand or product) with an individual, business or organization. Its primary purpose is not to be descriptive, but to identify the source of the product and distinguish it from other similar products. Without trademark rights, another person could claim ownership for your logo or other image and market their own product as yours.

In order to obtain a valid trademark, you must first choose a name that isn't already used by someone else and that isn't descriptive in nature . For example: "Red Bicycle" would probably be descriptive of a red bicycle. "Redbikesarefast" would also likely be descriptive and not unique enough to qualify for a trademark. But, "Redbikesarefast.com" could be a valid trademark, not because of its name, but because it's being used as a domain name to identify a business's website and distinguish it from other similar sites.

Trademark rights are created through use in commerce. The first use is called the "date of first use." This means that if you started using your trademark on your product or service before someone else did , then you have the right to continue using it even if someone starts using something similar after you do. But, you have to keep using your trademark for it to be considered part of your "identification" of who you are and what you do.

You can, however, lose your trademark rights by being slow to file a application for registration. Or by not paying the required fees and continuing to use a name that has been abandoned. This can be remedied by filing an application for registration in the USPTO's electronic system . Failure to file an application within 3 months of first use will result in the loss of your rights.

The next step is choosing a trademark symbol that will identify your product or service clearly to people or customers - like the "TM" or "R" symbols used on many trademarks today. These symbols are legally required so that people can see that the trademark is not being used by someone else.

The last step is to file your application for registration in the USPTO's electronic system . You can request a search of the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) to see if anyone else has filed before you or already uses a similar trademark for goods or services similar to yours. If no one else has applied for a trademark or started using a brand with your type of product, your application will go through the review process pretty quickly and you can expect it within 6 months.

Once the registration process is complete, you will be provided with an official certificate from the USPTO that identifies you as the owner of your trademark. There are also electronic databases where you can see all registered trademarks online, but there are additional fees for using these systems.

There's one more thing that I want to talk about and that's "generic" names and "descriptive" names . A "generic" name is a name or words that describe a characteristic, quality or function of a product. This can be the name of a type of product (like "pen" or "computer") or words that describe the specific quality, function and/or design of a product (like "green" computers). Each of these types of names are considered generic.

Each is protected, however, under different laws and in different ways. For example: "blue" computer screens would be a trademark . In order for you to obtain this protection, you must register the trademark before it becomes generic. You do this by filing an application for registration in TEAS before the mark becomes generic. As soon as your mark becomes completely generic (not just descriptive), it loses its protection and cannot be used as a trademark.

A "descriptive" name is a word or words that describe your type of product or service, but are not legally protected as trademarks. Examples of descriptive names include: "red" computers, "blue" computers and "green" computers. For these types of names to be protected under trademark laws, you need to register them before they become generic . This can be done by filing an application for registration in TEAS before the mark becomes generic. As soon as your mark becomes completely generic (not just descriptive), it loses its protection and cannot be used as a trademark.

Hopefully this will help you to understand basic trademark law in regards to selecting good trademarks and protecting them from infringement by other people's trademarks. But if you have any questions or concerns, it's best to consult the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website for more information about trademarks.

Mark Sprague is a recognized expert in the online marketing industry and provides valuable advice to businesses, websites and niches alike on how to succeed online in his free report: "The 3 Fatal Mistakes that Will Kill Your Website." If you'd like a free copy of this report just complete the form on this page now!

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Conclusion

That's pretty much it for this basic introduction to trademark law. I will be following up with some more advanced trademark articles in the near future and covering topics and information on common mistakes that people make when trying to conduct any type of business on the internet or even offline in the real world.

This article comes under the following categories: Copyright, Domain Names, Electronic Commerce, Internet Law, Trademark Law

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