Registering your trademark/service mark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) provides brand owners with additional levels of brand protection that are not otherwise achievable:
1. Presumption of validity, which shifts the burden of proof to Defendant on issues such as distinctiveness (protectability) of your brand, ownership, first use.
2. Nationwide rights without having to prove use nationwide.
3. The right to use the “®”, which is like an electric fence around your intangible brand asset, discouraging others from adopting a mark that’s too similar to yours.
4. The right to have your mark appear on the Register, making it more likely that a later-comer will discover your prior rights and refrain from adopting a too-similar mark.
5. The right to have the Trademark Office cite your mark against later applicants seeking to register too-similar marks.
6. Lenders to your business are likely to require a lien on your intellectual property as collateral; without registration, you may not be able to get a loan.
7. Prospective business partners, licensees, franchisees, or purchasers of or investors in your business are likely to expect if not require that your trademarks be federally registered.
8. Most 3rd party seller and social media website operators require you to prove registration of your mark before they will take down or take action against a posting that infringes your trademark. Trademark protection programs such as the Amazon Brand Registry require a federal registration before they will enroll your trademark in their online protection program.
9. Registering your mark entitles you to record the mark with US Customs, to protect against importation of counterfeit goods.
10. You provide an opportunity for your trademark attorney to creatively puzzle solve, which is what the best of us most love doing.
11. And if we work together you get the added benefit of the delight working with me!
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