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If you’re a San Francisco business owner, you face fierce local competition every day. This is why it’s so important to take the necessary measures to safeguard the mark that represents your brand from theft, misuse, and misappropriation. If you fail to register your trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, your mark will be left vulnerable to those who seek to make a profit off the brand you worked so hard to establish. After spending months or years building your business, it is imperative to shield the mark by which consumers recognize its good will.
At the Trademark Lawyer Law Firm, PLLC, our attorneys know how much effort you’ve put into growing your business and are committed to assisting you with protecting the mark that makes it unique. We have successfully registered more than 6,000 trademarks and work with San Francisco business owners across a broad spectrum of industries to help ensure their brands — and bottom lines — are shielded from wrongdoers.
Registration with the USPTO is only one facet of trademark law — after your mark has been successfully registered, your responsibilities don’t end there. Critically, it must also be renewed, maintained, monitored, and defended, when necessary. You must also take measures to assert your rights if you find out that your mark is wrongfully being used by another without your authorization. While your focus should be on your business operations and growth strategy, it is crucial to have the representation of an experienced trademark attorney to handle these types of intellectual property matters.
At the Trademark Lawyer Law Firm, we help business owners in various industries with a wide variety of trademark matters, including restaurants, retail stores, clothing companies, marketing agencies, breweries, healthcare facilities, and education providers. Offering comprehensive legal services, we assist entrepreneurs and their companies with the following:
By providing high-quality counsel, strategic advice, and zealous representation, our experienced attorneys strive to ensure the long-term success of our business. Working closely with clients to meet their objectives, we assist them with trademark matters during every phase of their business development and growth. Whether you are seeking to license a trademark, expand your portfolio, or sell your goods abroad, the attorneys at the Trademark Lawyer Law Firm have the skill, acumen, and insight necessary to help you satisfy your entrepreneurial goals.
The importance of registering your company’s trademark with the USPTO cannot be emphasized enough. Almost anything that makes your brand stand out can be trademarked, from your slogan, the name of a product, a symbol, design, or the name of your business. However, it’s critical to understand that there are very strict criteria in place when it comes to filing your trademark application — if there are any mistakes, your registration could be delayed or ultimately denied.
Typically, your mark must be used in connection with goods or services before it can be registered. But the USPTO also allows entrepreneurs to file an Intent to Use application to serve as a placeholder until the mark is used in commerce. Our skilled San Francisco trademark attorneys will work with you to determine the best course of action to register your mark as early as possible.
The Trademark Lawyer Law Firm has counseled thousands of business owners over the last decade on trademark matters and helped them successfully navigate the trademark registration process. From conducting an initial clearance search to completing the application and responding to any office actions, we are committed to finding efficient and effective solutions for our clients.
Regardless of whether you’ve taken every possible measure to protect your mark, trademark disputes can sometimes be unavoidable. Issues can arise as a result of intentional or inadvertent infringement, dilution, counterfeiting, unfair competition, use without permission, or due to the likelihood of confusion with another mark. In these cases, it is best to have an attorney by your side to negotiate a favorable outcome on your behalf — and advocate for your ownership rights in the courtroom.
In the event your trademark is in jeopardy, your business and bottom line are also threatened. If you discover another company has been misusing your mark or is wrongfully misleading consumers into believing your business is associated with the products it manufacturers, it’s essential to defend your brand. At the Trademark Lawyer Law Firm, we fight to protect our clients’ trademarks in litigation and work diligently to secure the most favorable outcome in every case.
Shielding the mark that makes your brand stand out from the competition is vital for your business to be successful in the marketplace. A knowledgeable San Francisco trademark attorney can help ensure you have every protective strategy in place to safeguard your mark from those who seek to infringe upon the goodwill of your business. The Trademark Lawyer Law Firm, PLLC provides San Francisco business owners, entrepreneurs, startups, and companies with a wide range of trademark services at reasonable rates. Contact us today to schedule a free 15-minute consultation with a trademark search attorney.
Suspensions are when your application is on hold. There are various reasons a trademark application can be suspended. However “likelihood of confusion” with prior application(s) filed and submission of foreign application are the most common reasons the USPTO may suspend an application. During a trademark suspension period, your lawyer will provide guidance on the next steps and whether it might be best to file an argument or pursue a coexistence agreement.
A disclaimer usually refers to a statement which indicates that you are not claiming exclusive rights to use the word(s) or a design element in your trademark application. A disclaimer allows for registration without creating a false impression of the registrant’s rights.
A good example of this is disclaiming “café” if your services are for a café.
If a trademark is not eligible for the Principal Registry, there is sometimes an option to register on the Supplemental Registry.
In cases where the USPTO finds the trademark application is merely ornamental, merely descriptive, or primarily geographically descriptive, the USPTO may allow the application to be registered on the Supplemental Registry. However, over time, the mark may acquire distinctiveness and possibly become eligible for the Principal Registry.
Two dates must be specified in a trademark application:
Date of First Use Anywhere: The “anywhere” refers to use in the U.S. or elsewhere. This is the date the goods were first sold or transported, or the services were first rendered under the mark. The use must also have been bona fide and in the ordinary course of trade.
Date of First Use in Commerce: This is the date when the goods were first sold or transported, or the services were first rendered under the mark in interstate or international commerce. The use of the mark must have been bona fide and in the ordinary course of trade.
The renewal timeframe for a trademark is between the 9th and 10th year anniversary of the trademark registration, and then in ten-year intervals. It is important to be aware that the USPTO also requires a registrant to provide an affidavit at the 5th and 6th years of ownership stating that the trademark is still being used in commerce. Failure to comply with the renewal timeframes or the affidavit requirements will result in the cancellation of the trademark registration.
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