Trademark Attorney Services for Your Irving Business

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

Do I need a trademark or a patent?

Depending on the type of business you have, you may need both. A trademark is anything that represents your brand in public, including business names, product names, logos, and colors. Most business owners have at least one trademark. Patents, on the other hand, protect new and novel inventions. If you are an inventor with a new product, you should protect its unique functionality through patent registration, as well.

Do I need to hire a trademark attorney to register my trademark?

The USPTO doesn’t require U.S. citizens to work with a trademark attorney, but they highly encourage it. The process to register a trademark is extremely detailed, and legal knowledge is essential to obtaining the broadest protections. When you work with an attorney, they can conduct a trademark search, draft your application—including selecting the correct trademark classes and specimens—and even respond to non-substantive Office Actions on your behalf. Instead of learning trademark law, you can continue to focus on growing your business.

Once my trademark is registered, how long will it be protected?

Your trademark protections won’t expire as long as you continue to use the mark in commerce and meet renewal deadlines. For new trademarks, your 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 with the USPTO every ten years. Failing to meet renewal deadlines or a lapse in using the trademark could result in cancellation of your registration and the protections it provides.

What is a priority date?

The date that you submit your application to the USPTO will become your priority date, and anyone looking to file a confusingly similar mark after that date will not be approved by the USPTO. This is one good reason to start the process to register your trademark as soon as possible to lock in this valuable protection.

I manufactured my product in China. Will my U.S. trademark protect my brand there as well?

The valuable protections your federally registered trademark provides only apply to disputes within the United States. If you do business in China or any other country, you should strongly consider registering in those countries as well.

Common misperceptions about trademarks heard around Irving, TX.

I’m too busy to register my trademark.

A business owner’s to-do list can seem never ending, and some tasks may ultimately get placed on the back burner, but trademark registration shouldn’t be one of those things. Before you begin to use your trademark in commerce, you should make sure that it won’t infringe on another business. In addition, you’ll lock in your priority date and its protections when you submit your application. Waiting to register your trademark could leave you more vulnerable to infringement later on.

If I have registered my trademark with the USPTO, I should have the right to the domain name as well.

This is not necessarily true. Your trademark registration doesn’t give you the exclusive use of a word, so it’s possible another business may also have the right to use the word. For example, Pandora is the registered business name of a jewelry brand and a music steaming platform. While both of them have the right to use the word in commerce, only one of them—in this case, the music streaming platform—owns the domain name. Read our blog post on registering your domain name does not protect your mark for additional information.

Someone from the USPTO will let me know if another business is using my trademark.

The USPTO will not alert you to potential infringement. As a trademark owner, it’s your responsibility to monitor your trademark and take action against infringers. Engage your trademark attorney to assist you. Most, like those at Gerben IP, offer monitoring services and will work with you to assert your trademark rights when needed.

I don’t need to do a comprehensive trademark search, because the USPTO will do one once I submit my application.

An examiner at the USPTO will conduct a comprehensive trademark search after you’ve submitted your application and paid your filing fees. If the examiner finds a confusingly similar mark is already in use, your application could be rejected and your filing fees lost. Conducting a comprehensive trademark search prior to submitting your application allows you to learn of potentially conflicting marks before it’s too late.

I have common law rights to my trademark as soon as I use it, so I don’t need to register with the USPTO.

You will have some rights to your mark as soon as it’s used in commerce, but they may not be enough to protect your brand moving forward. (explanation video) For example, your common law rights will only apply to disputes that occur in the small geographic region where your business is based. If you plan to expand outside Irving in the future, you could be prohibited from using your mark in certain areas if a similar mark is already in use. You’ll also have a more challenging time asserting your trademark rights in court. Instead of facing these challenges with your limited protections, register your trademark with the USPTO to have the presumption of validity nationwide.