Trademark Attorney Services for Your Frisco Business

The top 5 questions Frisco businesses have about obtaining a trademark.

Does my business need trademarks, patents, or copyrights?

Each business is unique, but it might be likely that your business may need to register more than one type of intellectual property in order to be protected from infringement.  Most businesses have at least one trademark, which is anything that represents your brand in the marketplace. Common trademarks include business and product names, logos, and slogans. Patents, on the other hand, protect the design and functionality of new inventions, while copyrights protect works of authorship, like novels, art, and song lyrics. If you are unsure about what forms of IP your business has, and how best to protect them, Gerben IP can assist you.

Do I need to register my trademarks with the USPTO?

The United States is a common law country, which means you’ll have some basic rights to your trademark as soon as you use it in the marketplace. However, these common law rights were designed to protect businesses from local competitors, and will not provide protection from infringement that occurs outside the Frisco area. If you plan to do business outside the area in the future, you may be prohibited from using your mark in certain markets where a confusingly similar mark is already in use. In order to have the presumption of validity nationwide, you will need to register your trademark with the USPTO.

When should I register my trademarks?

Start the process now! Before you invest in signage, product labeling, and marketing bearing your preferred mark, you should first know that it is available for use. Starting the registration process early on also locks in a valuable protection. The date you submit your application will become your priority date, and anyone looking to file a similar mark after that date will be rejected by the USPTO. When you wait to register your trademark, you could find you’re infringing on another business and face more challenges asserting your own trademark rights in legal proceedings.

When will my trademark protections expire?

Your trademark protections won’t expire as long as you do two things. The first is that you must continue to use your mark in public, and use it only in the way it appears in your trademark application. The second thing you must do in order to maintain your protections is to meet renewal deadlines set by the USPTO. For new trademarks, the first renewal will occur between the fifth and sixth year, and then again between the ninth and tenth year. After that, you’ll need to renew your trademark every ten years to have valuable protections that won’t expire!

How will I know if someone is using my trademark without my permission?

As a trademark owner, it will be your responsibility to monitor your trademark’s use and take action when potential infringement is found. Fortunately, many trademark attorneys, including those at Gerben IP, offer monitoring services to clients. We’ll let you know if we find possible infringement, and we’ll work with you to take legal action to stop the infringement as well.

Common misperceptions about trademarks heard around Frisco, TX.

An examiner at the USPTO will conduct a trademark search, so I don’t need to do one myself.

An examiner at the USPTO will conduct a trademark search, but only after you submit your application and pay your filing fees. If the examiner finds a confusingly similar mark is already in use, your application will be rejected and your fees lost. Conducting a comprehensive trademark search before you file your application saves you time and money in the long run. Work with an experienced IP attorney to conduct your search, and only submit your application if no conflicting marks are found. If confusingly similar marks already exist, you’ll need to make changes to your mark or select a new mark before filing your application.

I registered my business name, so I own the domain name as well.

Domain names and trademarks are regulated by different entities, and owning the rights to a word in trademark doesn’t give you exclusive rights to the word or the domain name associated with it. Trademark owners are, however, protected from cybersquatters who buy domain names in bad faith, with the intention to ransom the domain to its rightful owner at a much higher price or to sell counterfeit goods under someone else’s mark. If you feel that your trademark’s domain name has been purchased in bad faith, Gerben IP can assist you.

Once I’ve submitted my trademark application, I won’t need the assistance of a trademark attorney again.

Your attorney can provide valuable assistance in registering your trademarks, but their help doesn’t stop there. Once your trademark has been registered, your attorney can monitor its use and assist you in taking legal action when necessary. They will also help you with any licensing agreements or changes of ownership later on. Learn more about how to file an application.

Once I register my business name, no one else will be able to use it

This is not necessarily true. The USPTO will reject trademark applications that may be confusingly similar to another mark. However, if the mark is not likely to cause confusion in the marketplace, it may still gain approval from the USPTO. One example of this is Delta, which is a well-known trademark for both an airline and a faucet manufacturer. Because customers are not likely to confuse the two companies or the products and services they offer, the USPTO allowed both to trademark the world ‘Delta.’

As long as no one else is using my preferred business name, my application should be approved by the USPTO.

 While the most common reason for an application to be rejected is an existing similar mark, there are other reasons the USPTO won’t approve a trademark. For example, the USPTO won’t register generic or descriptive words, like “Good Pizza” or “Hot Coffee.”  Surnames also face challenges in obtaining trademark registration. In addition, your application may be rejected if you’ve been issued an Office Action requesting additional information and you fail to respond by the deadline. Working with a trademark attorney will help streamline the process and may increase your chances of approval as well. A study by the University of North Carolina found that trademark applications submitted with the assistance of a trademark attorney were up to fifty percent more likely to be approved.