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How to Trademark a Name and Logo | Trademark Registration Process & Intellectual Property Rights - YouTube
Channel: All Up In Yo' Business with Attorney Aiden Durham
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hi everyone I'm attorney aid in Durham
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with 180 lock Oh in Denver Colorado and
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you're watching all up in your business
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[Music]
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in this episode of all up in your
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business we're going to talk about the
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steps to take to trademark a name a
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business name or a product or service
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name and these steps are also going to
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apply to trademarking a logo but there
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are a few little differences if you're
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doing a logo versus trying to trademark
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a name but first before we get into it
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huge announcement coming at you
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March 4th is brandish DIY your trademark
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application during this one-hour webinar
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and mini workshop I'm going to teach you
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step by step how to prepare for complete
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and submit a trademark application
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without a lawyer and registration opens
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soon so if you want to learn the exact
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steps to take to file a trademark
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application without a lawyer check the
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description below for a link to get on
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the waitlist and to get some special
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early bird discount opportunities - all
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right let's talk about how to trademark
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a name the first step before you go
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trade marking anything is make sure it's
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something that's worth trademarking what
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makes a name more or less worth trade
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marking it really depends on how strong
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or weak it is a weak trademark is one
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that is more generic or common or
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descriptive versus a strong trademark
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which is something that's very arbitrary
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or very distinctive very creative and so
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the stronger your trademark is the
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stronger the trademark registration is
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going to be so if you have a really weak
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trademark something that typically makes
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it weak is if it's very descriptive of
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your goods or your services or if it's
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primarily your last name something like
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that makes a trademark on the weaker
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side and with a weak trademark if you
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register it all you have is a registered
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weak trademark and your trademark rights
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will ruffle
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to that if you have a weak generic
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trademark name your rights to enforce
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that trademark are gonna be somewhat
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limited and weaker versus if you have a
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very arbitrary name that's a stronger
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trademark then your registered trademark
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rights are gonna be a lot stronger to a
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few examples of very strong trademarks
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are like Google Google wasn't even a
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word until Google came out and created
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it so any like brand new word or
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creating a new word creating a new sound
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combining words to create something new
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that's the best thing you can do is
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create a brand new word or a brand new
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trademark that no one's ever seen before
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that's gonna make it stronger versus a
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weaker trademark so if we've decided
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that it's worth pursuing a trademark
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registration the next thing we want to
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do is make sure it's available to even
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register and use in the US a good first
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place to start with searching for your
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trademark availability is of course
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Google or your favorite search engine
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type in the trademark that you're
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looking to register and see what comes
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up if there's a bunch of other business
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listings for similar types of products
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or services if the exact trademark that
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you want comes up a lot or if there are
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a lot of similar variations then that
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might be a little red flag that maybe
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this trademark has already taken or if
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it's not taken necessarily registered if
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there's a lot of competition with that
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trademark that's going to affect how
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strong and distinctive your trademark is
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so if you're seeing a lot of similar
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variations of your trademark or
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identical trademarks then you might want
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to think about how that will impact your
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registration and then after doing a
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Google search you can also do a search
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on the Whois database to see what kind
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of domain name registrations already
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exists that incorporate your trademark
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or something similar to it and then the
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USP
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t铆o has a really good search database
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available - this allows you to search
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for pending trademark applications and
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registered trademarks that might be
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identical or similar to yours so if you
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go to the USPTO s website its uspto.gov
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and you'll navigate to their tests
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tes s system and this is where you're
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gonna do that search and you'll usually
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be able to do just a basic word search
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for your name now this is where the
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difference comes in if you're trying to
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trademark a logo then you'll want to do
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a design search which is a bit more
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complicated than just a basic word
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search so here you can type in the
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trademark name that you're wanting to
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use for this example I'm gonna type in
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all up in your business and then we'll
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see what comes up so let's say you were
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wanting to register your trademark all
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up in your business for your local ice
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cream shop we see here there is an
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active live registration for all up in
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yo business so what's important to note
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if you do find trademarks that are
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identical to yours or kind of similar to
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yours
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pay attention also to the goods or
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services that are associated with that
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registration there are two things
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primarily that go into trademark
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applications and trademark registrations
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the first is the similarity of the
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trademark itself the second is the
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similarity of the goods or services so
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if I'm opening an ice cream shop called
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all opinio business
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this current all up in your business
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registration is for like legal services
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and things that have absolutely nothing
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to do with ice cream or ice cream shops
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so with this finding I am relatively
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safe feeling like I can proceed with my
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application because there aren't any
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that are so similar in trademark and in
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the goods and services that it's likely
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it'll get through but if you do find
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something in the database that is kind
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of similar to your trademark and
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goods or services are somewhat related
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or if they're identical then again
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that's a red flag that you're going to
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want to take into consideration and
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maybe go back to the drawing board
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because if someone else already has that
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trademark registered in a very related
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category of goods or services that's
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going to impact how your application
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goes and whether or not you're going to
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get that registration you can also use
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some third-party trademark search tools
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there are companies out there that will
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do a very thorough trademark search
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these aren't lawyers or law offices
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they're just trademark search companies
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that will search the USPTO and
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common-law usage and even international
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usage and then what they'll do is
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they'll compile all the information and
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give you typically this very large
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report summarizing what they found now
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if you're not a lawyer and you don't
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know how to actually interpret and
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analyze those results it may not do you
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a whole lot of good to pay for that kind
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of a search but if you can figure out
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how to analyze what you're looking at
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then using one of those services for a
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pretty extensive search is a good idea
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but really the best option is to use an
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attorney to help you with this clearance
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search because the attorney is gonna not
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only know what to search for but they're
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also going to understand what they're
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looking at and they're gonna know how to
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analyze that in the context of your
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trademark and determine what it actually
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means for the fate of your trademark
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application so if we've determined we
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want to file the application and the
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trademark is available the next step is
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to start using the trademark now okay
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this isn't totally required for filing
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the application but if you want to get a
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registered trademark you do actually
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have to be using the trademark in
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commerce before the USPTO will register
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it so if you're not already it's a good
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idea to start using the trademark
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because at some point in the process if
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you're not using it when you file your
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application
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at some point in the application process
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the USPTO is going to want to see proof
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visual proof that you are using your
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trademark in connection with the goods
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and services that you've identified on
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your application so whether you're
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starting your business and already
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selling your product selling your
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services under your trademark or if
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you're planning to launch maybe after
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you filed the application either way at
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some point in the process you're gonna
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want to start actually using the
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trademark and then finally we file the
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application so first we're gonna want to
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find the right application a question
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that I get asked pretty often which is a
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little alarming is what is the best
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website to use to file a trademark
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application there is one and only one
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website to use and that is the US patent
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and trademark offices website uspto.gov
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that is the only website where you will
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file a trademark application any other
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website that purports to file the
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application is some kind of scam or
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they're just trying to get extra money
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out of you but you can file the
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application directly without any
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additional fees aside from just the
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USPTO skis on uspto.gov so once you're
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there you'll navigate to the screen with
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the trademark applications there are
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three different types of applications
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the one that's most commonly used is the
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TAS rf+ application which gives you the
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lowest filing fee so once you've started
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it the applications gonna ask for some
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information about the applicant who will
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be the owner of the trademark and then
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it's gonna ask for information about the
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trademark itself so if it's a name
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you're gonna type in the trademark name
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if it's a logo then you'll upload a
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design and image of your logo and it's
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also gonna ask for information about the
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goods and services with which you'll be
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using the trademark and with the reduced
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fee plus with that rf+ application you
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have to pick from the USPTO s date
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mase of their categories and
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descriptions of goods and services so
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you'll want to look through their
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database to find the category or
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categories that best fit and are most
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appropriate for the goods and/or
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services that you're gonna be providing
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under your trademark and then you submit
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the fee and submit the application and
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then what happens then you wait it
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usually takes about three months before
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a human being even sets their eyes on
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your application so there's gonna be a
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good amount of silence and downtime
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after you submit that application and
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the whole process usually takes about
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six to eight months it can take a lot
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longer than that but generally speaking
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it's about six to eight months a good
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thing to remember after you submit your
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application
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this stuff is all public record so all
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the information the fact that you are
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looking to register a trademark that's
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all public info so you're gonna start
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receiving emails and probably physical
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mail from companies trying to tell you
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that you need to do something else in
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order to proceed with your application
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or you know keep your application active
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this is all spam garbage that you can
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throw away with the TAS rf+ application
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you're agreeing to only accept
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communication from the USPTO by email so
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if you're using that application and you
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receive something physically mailed to
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you that's a sign immediately it's not
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actually from the USPTO unless it's your
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trademark certificate that's the only
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thing they actually physically mailed to
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you but anything else is gonna be from a
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scammer and then anything that you do
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receive an email just make sure it's
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actually coming from the US Patent and
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Trademark Office anything else that's
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asking you to pay more money or do
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something else that you have to pay for
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ignore it that's all for this episode
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folks please drop a comment below
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and let me know what you think and again
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don't forget if you want to learn
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step-by-step how to file a trademark
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application without a lawyer check the
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description below to get on the wait
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list for brandish DIY your trademark
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application thank you all so much for
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watching I made in Durham and I'll see
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you next time
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