How to Register a Trademark in Wyoming

Introduction

If you’re planning on starting up a business in Wyoming and want to protect your brand name, you’ll need to register your trademark. Trademarks are the first step towards securing your company’s intellectual property rights and ensuring that no one else can take them away from you.

Trademarks and Service Marks

A trademark is a word, phrase, or symbol that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. A service mark is the same as a trademark but identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than goods. There are three types of marks:

• Trademark (TMs): Words and phrases used to identify a product or service sold under your brand name. For example, “Apple” is used by Apple Computer Inc. to identify computers. “Google” is also known as a Tm for Internet services provided by Google Inc. “Microsoft” for computer software/hardware and operating systems produced by Microsoft Corporation; etcetera.
• Service Mark (SM): The equivalent mark on services rather than products such as financial services like banking institutions like BankAmerica Corp., clothing stores like JCPenney Co., restaurants such as Burger King International Inc., etcetera
• Collective Mark (CM): Used by members who have shared interests in promoting their products/services through some association

Requirements for Trademarking

Trademarking your business name is something you should consider if you want to ensure that no one else can use it. This process protects your brand and gives you exclusive rights to the name, allowing you to enforce its use.

Trademarking a generic word or phrase isn’t possible because they are words that have become synonymous with a type of product or service. For example, “dog food” can’t be trademarked because it’s too generic. Therefore anyone could use the term on their packaging without fear of being sued by another company that owns the trademark for dog food products.

If someone were to try and register a trademark for “dog food” in Wyoming, they would encounter problems. This is because it wouldn’t differentiate them from other competitors selling similar products (and nobody wants their customers to confuse one brand with another).

File an Application for the Trademark

The first step that you’ll need to take is to make sure that your mark is eligible for registration. You can do this by using the Wyoming Trademark Checker, which will let you know if your mark is available for use in Wyoming and whether there are any issues with it being registered. There are also other requirements that must be met before filing an application:

• Your trademark must be used in interstate commerce or its intent must be to engage in interstate commerce;
• It should not violate any federal laws or trademarks already registered by other companies; and
• The trademark should include some element of originality (i.e., not just a word)

Pay the Filing Fee

The filing fee is $100, non-refundable, and payable by check or money order. The fee can be paid online with a credit card at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website. Filing fees are scaled depending on how many goods and services your application covers:

• Class 0 (Utility Patents): $400
• Classes 1–9 (Trademarks): $275
• Covers up to 10 total goods/services: $225 for each additional class of goods/services registered

Complete your Research.

Before you file, be sure you have a good idea of how the trademark process works. Once you’ve registered your trademark in Wyoming, it’s important to keep an eye on it. This ensures that no one can use it without your permission. You may also need to take legal action if someone else tries to use your mark without your permission. If this sounds like something you’d want help with, consider hiring an attorney who specializes in intellectual property law or consumer protection law.

Conclusion

Registering your trademark in Wyoming is a good way to protect your business. Be sure you do your research before filing. Make sure that your application includes all the necessary elements, like proof of use.