Understanding How Non-Use Can Lead to Trademark Abandonment Trademark abandonment due to non-use happens when a trademark owner stops using a mark in commerce with no intention of resuming that use. Under Section 45 of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. § 1127), three consecutive years of non-use creates a rebuttable legal presumption of abandonment, meaning
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Trademark a Product Shape Yes, you can trademark a product’s shape, but it falls under a specific category called trade dress and faces a higher bar than a word or logo mark. The shape must be non-functional, and product design cannot be treated as automatically distinctive — it always has to earn distinctiveness through consumer
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Yes, Sound Marks Are Registrable — Here’s What It Takes Yes, you can trademark a sound. The USPTO recognizes “sound marks” as a form of trademark, as long as the sound is distinctive enough to identify your brand to consumers — not just background noise or a common effect. What Makes a Sound Trademarkable A
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Beware of Trademark Invoice Scams You spent months choosing the perfect business name, completed your trademark application, and finally hit submit. Then, just a few days or weeks later, an official-looking letter arrives in the mail demanding payment. Or perhaps it’s an email congratulating you on your trademark approval and asking for one last fee
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Understanding Trademark License Agreements A trademark license agreement is a contract in which a trademark owner (the licensor) grants another party (the licensee) permission to use their mark, usually in exchange for royalties or fees. The agreement spells out how the mark can be used, for what goods or services, and under what conditions. What
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Understanding Trademark Coexistence Agreements A trademark coexistence agreement is a written contract between two businesses that allows both to use similar or identical marks without one party claiming infringement. These agreements typically define specific terms — like geographic territory, industry, or how each mark can be presented — so both businesses can operate side by
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Understanding the Madrid Protocol for International Trademark Registration The Madrid Protocol is an international treaty that lets trademark owners apply for protection in multiple countries by filing one application through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Instead of filing separate applications in each country, businesses can extend an existing U.S. trademark application or registration to
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Fake Trademark Attorney Texts and Emails Target Small Business Owners — Here’s How to Spot Them If you received an urgent text or email claiming that someone is about to trademark your business name or logo and demanding immediate payment to “stop” it, that message is likely a scam. This type of fraud targets small
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Understanding Trademark Incontestability and What It Means If you’re wondering what trademark incontestability is, it is a legal status available to certain federally registered trademarks after they have been used continuously in commerce for at least five years and meet other requirements. Once the required declaration is accepted by the United States Patent and Trademark
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What to Do If You Got a Call Right After Filing a Trademark Application Got a suspicious phone call shortly after filing your trademark application? It’s a scam. Fraudsters obtain specific application details and use them to contact business owners posing as government officials and demanding payment. How This Scam Works Here’s how this scam
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Trademark a Bakery To trademark a bakery, you register your brand name with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) under the classes that match what you sell and the services you offer, such as baked goods, custom cake orders, or catering. Many bakery brands could benefit from more than one class, since retail
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Understanding Trademark Oppositions A trademark opposition is a formal challenge filed against a pending trademark application after it’s published in the USPTO’s Official Gazette. Anyone who believes they would be harmed by the new registration — usually because it’s confusingly similar to their own mark — can file an opposition with the USPTO’s Trademark Trial
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What Influencers and Content Creators Should Know About Trademarks If you’ve built a following around your name, your brand, or your content style, you’ve built something worth protecting. Trademarks aren’t just for corporations — they’re one of the most practical tools content creators have for locking in ownership of the brand identity they’ve worked hard
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Using a Trademark Before Registration — Here’s What to Know Yes, you can use a trademark before it’s registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). You can even apply to register a mark before you’ve used it, as long as you have a genuine intent to use it soon. Both paths are
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Does a Trademark Registration Expire? A trademark registration doesn’t expire the way a patent does — but it can be canceled if you don’t maintain it. There’s no fixed end date. As long as you continue using the mark in commerce and file the required maintenance documents on time, your registration can last indefinitely. A
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Here’s What the New USPTO Serial Number Series Means for Your Trademark Application Starting July 18, 2026, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will begin assigning new trademark application serial numbers that start with “50” instead of continuing the current “99” series. This is simply a numbering update, not a change to how
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The TM Symbol: What It Means and When to Use It The ™ symbol means you’re claiming a word, name, phrase, or logo as your trademark. Anyone can use it — no registration required. It’s a way of putting others on notice that you consider the mark yours. TM Doesn’t Mean Your Mark Is Registered
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What Is the USPTO and What Does It Do? The USPTO — short for the United States Patent and Trademark Office — is the federal agency responsible for registering trademarks and patents in the United States. If you’re building a brand and want legal protection for your business name, logo, or slogan, the USPTO is
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What a Professional Trademark Search Actually Covers Most people who come to trademark research for the first time assume the process is simple: type the name into the USPTO database, see if anything comes up, and move forward if it looks clear. It’s an understandable assumption — but it significantly underestimates what a real trademark
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Trademark a Business Name in Two States — What You Need to Know Yes — you can protect a business name in more than one state, but how you do it depends on the type of trademark protection you’re pursuing. State trademark registrations are filed individually, federal trademark registration covers all 50 states at once,
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