Protecting Your Image - Registering a Trademark

Registering your trademark is an exciting step for any burgeoning business. You have decided on a brand, an image, a logo, and you want to make sure no one else cherry-picks off of it. But how do you do it? How much should you spend? Should you do it regionally or nationally? It is difficult to know the answers to these questions without consulting with a professional.

The first thing to know about trademarks is, they’re sometimes protected even if you don’t register them. Under common law, just using a trademark in a commercial setting automatically offers some protections. That being said, there are definite advantages to registering your trademark.

It is possible to register trademarks at the local or state level. Most states have a trademark registration process that is run through the secretary of state. One of the advantages of registering your trademark at the state level is that it is cheaper; however, it only protects your brand within your specific state, so if you do business across state lines, it doesn’t help you much.

Of course, getting a federally registered trademark through the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) offers several protections. It protects your mark throughout the United States and makes it easier to register your mark abroad if you’re going to conduct international business. It also ensures that your mark does not infringe on any mark being used by a similar business, because the process involves a search of similar marks in similar industries. However, getting your mark registered federally can be quite timely and expensive.

No matter what route you take, protecting the intellectual property you worked so hard to create is very important to your business. Once you have trademark protections, whether through common law, locally, or federally, you will want to enforce those protections. Doing so is paramount to ensuring your brand is associated only with the quality goods and/or services you provide.