How do I get a Trademark?

Introduction

You want to protect your brand. You’ve worked hard to create it, and you want to ensure that only you can use it. How do you do that? The first step is to use the trademark symbol (™) when referring to your business name or product name. That way, no one else can claim they own the same name as you do unless they also use this symbol. This is called “common law rights” and it’s not as strong as registration with the federal government, but it’s useful nonetheless.

Register your trademark with the USPTO.

Check the USPTO website to see if there are any trademarks registered similar to your brand. Once you’ve determined that your trademark is available for use, it’s time to register it. This process can be expensive and time consuming, but as with anything else, the more money and time you invest in this step up front, the better off your business will be in the long run.

The first step of registering a trademark is filing an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The USPTO will review your application and make sure that it meets their requirements before they issue you a certificate of registration. This certificate grants ownership of a particular mark, which allows you to enforce its rights against other parties who use or attempt to use similar marks without authorization or consent from yourself or another owner of said mark(s).

The USPTO will also use your application to review the trademark before issuing a certificate of registration. This is called an “examination” and can take several months depending on how busy their office is at any given timeSearch engine results (e.g., Google) Trade publications Local newspapers The USPTO’s website is the best place to monitor your trademark, as it provides access to all of the USPTO’s databases and records. You can also use TSDR to check if any other companies or individuals are using a similar mark in the same category as yours…

Monitor your trademark.

When you register a trademark, the USPTO issues a certificate of registration. You then have three years to monitor the use of your mark and report any potential infringements. If you fail to do this, your trademark may be declared abandoned by the USPTO.

You should monitor your trademark using the following:

• The online Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) database on the USPTO’s website
• Social media sites

Use the trademark symbol (™).

If you want to use your trademark symbol, use the following format: ®. You can use this symbol on all materials that promote your brand, such as business cards, packaging and marketing materials. For example:

• If you have a clothing line and sell t-shirts with an image of one of your designs or logos on them, print “[Brand Name]®” in place of where the “R” would be located in the word “Registrar” at the bottom left corner of each shirt. This will indicate that this particular item is registered under your trademark.
• The same goes for websites—if someone uses Google or another search engine to find information about your company or products and sees that they are protected under a registered trademark (the ® symbol), it will help build trust among consumers who are looking into purchasing from you because they know they’re protected by law if someone else tries selling similar goods or services without permission from the original owner

Your brand is protected once you use the ™, but it is not fully protected until you register it with the government.

To protect your brand and create awareness for it, use the ™ symbol when you mention your product or service. This symbol is just like the copyright sign (©). You can also trademark your business name by filing a trademark application with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). You may register an unregistered mark if you have used it in commerce before any other person has filed a conflicting application in connection with similar goods or services.

If someone else tries to use your trademark or infringes on it by using confusingly similar marks, you can file an opposition to get it back. For example, if another company released an energy drink called “Monster Cream Soda” after yours was already registered as “Monster Cream Soda,” then their product would be considered infringing upon yours because of its similarity in name and appearance—even though they had never actually heard of yours! This is why monitoring is important: so that no one else can take advantage of what belongs to YOU!

In addition to trademarking your brand and logo, you can also protect them by registering the copyright on any original content or designs (e.g., music, videos, images) that you create. Just like a trademark, this gives you exclusive rights over how your work is used.

Conclusion

As you can see, the process of trademarking your brand is not simple and requires a lot of work. However, it’s worth it in the long run because it allows you to protect your brand from copycats as well as prevent other businesses from using the same name or logo as yours.