How to Conduct a Trademark Clearance Search Before Spending $10K on Branding: A Legal Guide
Running a quick search in the USPTO database for exact spelling matches to your idea for a new brand name or slogan will not protect your company from a costly Section 2(d) likelihood-of-confusion refusal or a common law trademark infringement lawsuit. The examining attorney could still come back with a likelihood of confusion refusal, and […]
Be Careful With Unregistered Trademarks
A federal law known as the Lanham Act is often used for a variety of unfair competition claims brought by competitors, including infringement of unregistered trademarks. (At the state law level, most states have some version of a Deceptive Trade Practices Act that also prohibits unfair competition.) You should never assume that a cursory search of exact matches in the USPTO or Secretary of State databases can provide the all-clear to proceed with a brand idea.
What is Trademark Infringement?
Trademark infringement is the unauthorized use of a trademark on or in connection with goods and/or services in a manner that is likely to cause confusion, deception, or mistake about the source of the goods and/or services. But what does this mean for your small business? How can you avoid receiving a nasty cease and desist […]
Protecting Your Unregistered Trademarks
We’ve talked before about the importance of conducting a thorough trademark search before launching a brand name or logo or slogan. You might be surprised to learn about similar trademarks that are already in use. You might learn that your proposed trademark would be considered relatively weak. Even if trademark registration simply isn’t in the budget yet […]
Protecting Your Brand, Part 4 – Enforcing Your Trademark
In Part 1 of this series, we discussed the importance of conducting a trademark search. In Part 2, we explained this idea of the “likelihood of confusion” and what to look for in that trademark search. In Part 3, we discussed how to register your trademarks with the USPTO. But once your trademark is registered, it’s your job to protect […]
