By: Michael J Foycik Jr.
July 14, 2019
The author is a patent attorney with over 28 years experience in patents and trademarks. For further information, please email at IP1lwyr@gmail.com, or call at 877-654-3336.
Getting a trademark is a great idea, but things may not be that simple. There are some misconceptions that can cost time, money, or even loss of rights.
One common misconception is that a registered trademark is necessary to have enforceable trademark rights. We are all familiar with registered trademarks – the kind with the ® registration symbol. But, trademark rights normally arise from actual use, even for unregistered trademarks. State courts can enforce such rights arising from actual use, even in the absence of a federally registered trademark. No registration, no problem – sometimes.
Getting a registered trademark requires filing a trademark application. Choices need to be made right at the start: actual use or intent-to-use; type of goods/services; logo or word mark. These choices can have profound consequences. Even the U.S. Trademark Office recommends having an experienced trademark attorney help with those choices – you'll see the warning for that in the online trademark application filing forms and elsewhere.
Actual use sounds better than intent-to-use. Maybe so - unless there is a conflict with another trademark filed on an intent-to-use basis. Then, surprisingly, the owner of the intent-to-use to application is permitted to introduce evidence of events that show an intent-to-use that has occurred before the application's filing date. The actual-use applicant does not have the same rights. Such evidence of intent-to-use can be scant: a mere mention at a business meeting, or an order for design of the mark, for example. This is peculiar to federal trademarks; state courts can apply their own standards and might well decide specific cases differently.
Read more >> http://internationalpatentservice.com/Costly-Misconceptions-About-Trademarks.html
