What to Know About the Trademark Office Action Deadline You have three months from the issue date of a USPTO office action to respond, and you can request one three-month extension for a $125 fee, for a total of six months. If you miss the trademark office action deadline, the USPTO treats the application as
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The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Explained The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) is an administrative tribunal inside the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that decides disputes over whether a trademark can be registered or should stay on the federal register. A small business most often meets the TTAB when a trademark application
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Petition to Cancel Trademark Registrations Explained A petition to cancel a trademark is a formal request asking the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), part of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), to cancel an existing federal trademark registration. It is the tool used to challenge a mark that has already registered, rather than
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Trademark Infringement Explained Trademark infringement is the use of a trademark, or one that is confusingly similar, on goods or services in a way that is likely to confuse consumers about who is behind them. Whether infringement has actually occurred is decided by a court, so this post explains the general concept rather than any
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How to Use a Trademark Correctly in Your Branding To use a trademark correctly, display it consistently, use it as an adjective rather than a noun or verb, and apply the right symbol for your mark’s status. These habits keep your brand recognizable and help prevent your mark from being treated as a generic term
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Who Should Own a Trademark? Who should own a trademark comes down to who actually uses the mark or controls the quality of the goods or services sold under it.The USPTO (the United States Patent and Trademark Office) expects the applicant named on a trademark application to be the owner of the mark, and that
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The Four Trademark Filing Basis Options Explained A trademark filing basis is the reason you give the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for why you are entitled to apply to register your mark. There are four trademark filing basis options: use in commerce, intent to use, foreign registration, and foreign application. Every application must
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Should You Trademark Your Etsy Shop Name? You don’t need a trademark to open or run an Etsy shop. Etsy’s availability check tells you whether a name has already been used on Etsy, but it isn’t designed to tell you whether that name conflicts with someone’s trademark. That means another business could already hold rights
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Why Related Goods and Services Matter For Your Trademark Search A comprehensive trademark search looks at related goods and services because a similar mark used in a different industry can still cause a conflict. If shoppers might reasonably assume two products or services come from the same source, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
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Trademark and Recipes: What’s Protected? No, you cannot trademark a recipe itself. Trademark law protects brand identifiers — names, logos, slogans, and packaging that tell customers where a product comes from — not the list of ingredients or steps used to make it. That distinction trips up a lot of food entrepreneurs, so let’s break
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USPTO Removes 100,000 Unused Goods and Services from Trademark Registrations The USPTO has canceled more than 100,000 unused goods and services from trademark registrations, marking a significant milestone in its ongoing effort to keep the federal trademark register accurate and reliable. The cleanup focuses on goods and services that were never actually used in commerce
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Understanding Concurrent Use Trademark Registrations A concurrent use trademark registration allows two or more unrelated businesses to hold federal registrations for the same or a confusingly similar mark, with each owner’s rights limited to a specific geographic territory. It’s a narrow exception to the general rule that only one party can register a given mark
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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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