What Do I Need To Register A Business Name

Registering your make name as a trademark is a simple three-step process.
You can register your make name with the USPTO to protect your intellectual property from misuse.
It is not immediately necessary to secure a trademark, though it could benefit your brand.
This article is for modest business owners who are gear up to register and trademark their make name or wondering whether they should.

Registering a trademark for your company is a big step that helps you protect your brand identity from misuse or theft. Registering a trademark is a fairly straightforward process that you can complete in but a few easy steps.

This guide volition walk y'all through each step needed to register and trademark your brand name, and reply some oftentimes asked questions about registering your trademark.

What is a trademark?

According to the The states Patent and Trademark Function (USPTO), a trademark is "a word, phrase, symbol, and/or pattern that identifies and distinguishes the source of the appurtenances of one party from those of the others."

Steps to trademark your company proper name

Trademarking your company's proper name is not as unproblematic as filing for an LLC and may take more time than you imagine.

ane. Search

First, you need to search the federal database to ensure the name you want to trademark isn't already protected equally a trademark. You tin practice this with the USPTO's Trademark Electronic Search System, likewise known as TESS. You lot should search not only for the name you want, merely for similar names. Your registration could be denied if the name is too similar to a name already registered within the aforementioned class.

While this sounds straightforward, it can be complex. Iguana Ice Foam and Iguana'southward Water ice Foam might exist too like, for example. It can also hateful that a registered trademark simply looks or sounds similar your mark or that the meanings are similar.

two. Use

In one case you've searched and cleared the name you desire to trademark, it's time to prepare your trademark awarding. You tin file for a name already in commercial use or with an intent to use the proper noun in the futurity.

The trademark awarding itself has 10 components:

The proper name and accost of the applicant
The citizenship and legal entity of the applicant
A name and address for future correspondence (this does not have to be the same equally the name of the applicant)
A drawing of the desired mark (if you are only applying for the name and don't want to include a blueprint element, yous simply type in the proper noun)
A thorough clarification of the marking
A specific listing of services or goods covered past the trademark application
The class of services or goods
An example of the marker in use also equally the date information technology was commencement used
A dated signature from you or an authorized representative
The appropriate fee for the blazon and number of classes included on the application

iii. File

Once you have completed the application, you take two filing options: TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard. The Plus option is less expensive and more streamlined; information technology as well has a lower rate of rejections. However, if you lot need to create a custom clarification of your services or goods that is not available in the preset list Plus provides, the risk associated with the Standard pick may be more beneficial for your situation.

Once yous've submitted your application, you lot will receive a confirmation receipt from the USPTO and a serial number that you tin can use to check the condition of your application in the Trademark Condition & Document Retrieval (TSDR) portal.

Key takeaway: To register and trademark your make proper noun, search the TESS database for like brand names, fill out the trademark application, and submit it to the USPTO for review.

Trademark FAQs

What is the difference betwixt a trade proper noun, trademark and service mark?

A trademark protects goods, and a service marker does the aforementioned for services. All the same, the word "trademark" is sometimes used for both types of marks. Both are designed to limit the ability of competitors to mislead consumers with false claims of where a product or service originates.

A trade proper name is what is used in place of the official concern proper name. This is oftentimes indicated on paperwork with the phrase "doing business as" (DBA). Information technology is used when the business proper name is considered too lengthy or when the desired name was too shut to one that already had a trademark or service mark. (Note that a trade name does not indicate the legally responsible entity behind the service or product.)

Should you trademark your visitor proper name?

It isn't necessary to register your marking to receive protectable rights. In the United States, you are granted "common-law rights" to a marking just past using it as office of your business concern. This means that you could begin using information technology and enforce your ownership of it through documentation of being the kickoff to use it commercially. Withal, in that location are limitations on your rights with a mutual-police trademark.

Registering for a federal trademark has a number of advantages. Almost importantly, information technology gives you legal ownership of the mark and the exclusive rights to employ information technology anywhere in the nation as it relates to the appurtenances or services yous listed during registration. Common-police rights are limited to the firsthand geographic area in which you are operating, and registering the proper name with your state only protects your rights within the borders of that state.

When you register your mark with the USPTO, there will be a public notice stating your ownership, and information technology will be listed in the online database. With a federally registered trademark, you also accept the option to register your trademark with the U.S. Customs and Edge Protection to keep foreign goods from being imported with the same name. Yous'll likewise be able to use the federal symbol ® instead of the less enforceable ™ mark.

The name of your company is the main mode you nowadays it to the world. Imagine someone else using your company'due south name to make offers that are antithetical to the mission and values of your concern. If you want to afford your business organization the maximum legal protection, you volition demand a trademark.

When you file for a trademark, it only covers one classification. Each additional nomenclature must be noted in the awarding and volition incur an additional charge. There are 45 classes to be considered. For example, if your business produces vehicles, you would want a Form 12 trademark. If you additionally wanted to sell clothing with the proper name of the same visitor on it, you would demand to too accept a Course 25 trademark. Consider exactly how yous will exist using the proper noun to determine which class or classes you lot should list it under.

Who should trademark their business name?

If your business concern has a unique proper name, information technology tin can exist trademarked as long as it isn't likewise similar to another proper noun that has already received a trademark. For example, if the proper name is likewise vague, like The Ice Cream Shop, it is unlikely to be eligible for a trademark. Something like Iguana Ice Cream would be more likely to receive a trademark, since it joins common words in a unique mode.

It is also of import to consider the geographical area y'all will be serving. The common-constabulary trademark protection that you automatically receive by using the proper noun is restricted to your immediate geographic area. If your business organisation serves multiple states, you'll definitely desire to apply for a trademark to protect your business.

If yous have several product lines within your business that also have unique names, y'all may desire to trademark those besides. For case, Ford is a trademark of the Ford Motor Company, which likewise has trademarks for lines of vehicles such as the F-150, Mustang, Ranger and Explorer.

Did you know? The common-law trademark protection that you automatically receive for your business proper noun is simply restricted to your firsthand geographic area. If your business operates in multiple states, you should utilise for a trademark.

Should I get a trademark or LLC first?

Whether yous should register for a trademark or an LLC get-go largely depends on your business goals.

A limited liability company (LLC) is a business structure nomenclature within the U.S. that describes a private express visitor. It is ordinarily issued by the land in which the company operates, although you can receive an LLC from whatsoever country. An LLC registration normally takes less than a solar day to procedure, while a trademark takes an average of three months.

If yous desire to begin operating immediately, it makes sense to annals for the LLC start. If yous have enough of lead time and are more interested in securing your federal rights to the proper name before you put it out into the world, out of fear that it may exist co-opted by someone else, and then it makes more sense to use for the trademark kickoff.

Does your concern need a trademark registration right away?

Your business concern does not need to annals for a trademark right away.

Typically you need to be able to show "use in commerce" when registering for a marking, which means that y'all should be able to prove it was being used before you could register it. Still, there is the option to apply for an intent-to-use (ITU) trademark.

If y'all proceed with an ITU trademark, you nonetheless have to demonstrate your utilize of the marking in commerce by completing the documentation and paying the additional fees within the allotted timeframe prior to the mark's registration.

There are only three periods within which you tin can claim utilise in commerce:

Prior to approving for publication
Within six months of the issuance of the notice of allowance (NOA)
Within the time granted past an extension

Y'all tin can constitute use in commerce in several different means, including the following:

Placing the mark on your goods sold or your website for goods sold
Using the mark in association with services being sold

There are three types of commerce nether federal police:

Foreign commerce
Territorial
Interstate

What is non typically acceptable is intrastate commerce, meaning business organisation that is limited to the borders of a single land.

If your business can't yet prove you are using the trademark in commerce, or if you won't be able to prove it within the confines of the ICU procedure, at that place is no reason to utilise for the trademark start.

If I register a business organisation name, exercise I need to annals a trademark?

Registering a business name is typically done at the state level and does non provide federal protection. If you are only going to provide services or products inside that state, in that location is no reason to register for a trademark. If you lot are offer products and services in multiple states and want federal protection for the proper name of your business, though, you would need to annals for a trademark.

How can yous tell if someone else already has rights to a marker?

TESS makes information technology easy to search the federal database of trademarks in various ways. The "bones give-and-take marking search" allows you to search names, words and phrases that accept received a federal trademark.

The "word and/or design mark search" allows you to employ either a blueprint or words or a combination of the ii to search the database. Even so, you volition likely demand to know the design codes to practice this effectively.

At that place is also the option to browse the directory or private fields within the database. If y'all aren't sure exactly what might accept been trademarked merely you know a general date, you tin can search by registration or publication engagement.

If your registration is accustomed, how long is that registration valid?

A trademark registration is valid for every bit long as you are willing to maintain it. Once a trademark is issued, it does not expire equally long as it remains in apply for the registered purpose. You lot come across, a trademark does non grant y'all ownership of the give-and-take, phrase or image; it gives you lot the right to that word, phrase or image as information technology is used to place the services or appurtenances listed in the registration.

However, using it isn't quite enough. You must give the USPTO proof that the trademark has remained in utilize past filing a Section 8 declaration between the fifth and sixth anniversary of the registration. This is a simple sworn argument.

Upon the registration'south 10th anniversary, actual proof is required. This can be an image of your product or service using the trademark. Yous must do this every 10 years.