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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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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