When people think of starting their own business, what they usually think first is the logo or the trademark of their company. They will also think about the capital and will make the necessary business plans to present with the bank when taking out a loan.
You have to consider that it is important for a business to have a trademark symbol in order for consumers to identify their products. If you want to start your own business, you may want to think about the design of your trademark symbol or logo. You have to consider the fact that it should be unique and should be easily remembered by consumers.
However, just thinking about and designing your trademark and applying it in your products and as business logo is not enough. You have to consider the fact that registering your trademark is also important. By registering your business trademark, your company will have exclusive rights for the use of the trademark. By having that right, it will make it illegal for other companies to copy your trademark symbol to be placed in their products. You have to consider that in order to protect your products better, you have to register your trademark in order for it to become illegal to reproduce without the authorization of your company.
First of all, trademark registration is done in the United States Patent and Trademark Office or the PTO. The Patent and Trademark Office is responsible for registering trademark and is also responsible for granting exclusive rights for the company to use their trademark symbol. The Patent and Trademark Office is also responsible on patenting new inventions and copyrighting works of art and engineering designs. You have to realize that the Patent and Trademark Office is responsible and is actively implementing the intellectual property law.
The first step in trademark registration application is by filing for it with the Patent and Trademark Office. Once your application is received by the Patent and Trademark Office, it will review your application and determine if it meets all the minimum requirements set by them. If not, all the documents you mailed, including your application and the fee will be returned to you. However, if the filing meets the minimum requirements and is approved by the Patent and Trademark Office, they will assign a serial number on it and sends you a receipt after about two months after filing it.
However, you have to consider that this is not the end of the process and you cannot use the trademark symbol yet. The next step in the registration process is the examination of the trademark symbol made by the Patent and Trademark Office's attorney. The attorney will search the database for registered trademarks and determines if the trademark symbol you are trying to register will be rejected or will be approved. Usually, the common grounds for rejection is that the trademark being examined bears similarities to trademarks already approved. You have to consider that it will be lengthy process considering all the trademark symbols existing today.
This is why you should make sure that your trademark will bear no similarities or resemblance to existing trademarks that is already registered. You can do this by hiring your own patent and trademark lawyer or by searching for it yourself. However, it is recommended that you should hire a lawyer because it can prove to be time consuming when you look for it yourself. The trademark lawyer you hire will be knowledgeable and will be responsible in all the different legalities concerning your trademark.
If your trademark symbol has been rejected, the Patent and Trademark Office will send you a letter and call you by phone and inform you about the grounds for rejection. You should overcome all the objections and have it reexamined by the lawyer again. You can do this by redesigning your trademark symbol.
These are the things you need to know when registering your trademark symbol. As you can see, it will take quite a while before you can actually legally use your trademark. If you want the process to go faster, you can consider hiring a trademark lawyer where they will prepare all the necessary documents and requirements. They will also do an examination of your trademark symbol and determine if you need to redesign your trademark or not.
Patents and Trademarks