

Let’s say you want to trademark the name “SunshineFloss” but it has already been taken by a company in the fashion industry. But only if your business is in a totally unrelated industry to your opposition’s. Can you use a name that’s already trademarked? This will put your business at a financial loss and may even result in loosing your entire customer-base. Then you will have no other choice but to let go of your claim and re-brand the business entirely. If the opposition finds a way to prove they used the mark first, your claim would become invalid. However, once the original user of the mark becomes aware of this, he or she will most likely challenge your claim to the mark. Can you trademark a name already in use but not registered? If you have dual citizenship you will be asked to decide which one of them should be printed on the certificate of registration.
#ENCIRCLED R TRADEMARK SYMBOL REGISTRATION#
citizen to obtain federal registration but you will be required to submit your birth citizenship details. citizen to obtain a federal registration? It’s not valid, however, it will help you in obtaining the same trademark in foreign countries if you are conducting business in more than one country. Is a federal registration valid outside of the United States? This is where you submit your federal trademark application. USPTO or United States Patent and Trademark Office is a federal agency that issues patents and trademarks. The use of symbols are not required by certain countries such as Canada and etc. You are not allowed to use it for marks with pending or expired registration, or for products and services that were not listed in the registration. If a mark represents both products and services, use TM there as well.įinally, use the encircled R for marks that are federally registered with the USPTO. Use TM for marks that represent products and SM for ones that represent services.

If your mark is not registered or in the pending stage of a federal registration, use TM and SM. There are three symbols you can use to indicate that a certain mark is trademarked TM, SM and R And helps in obtaining trademark in foreign countries.Establishes a legal public record of your claim.When it comes to federal trademarks, there are many benefits such as The only downside is that your rights are limited to the geographical areas where you conduct business in.įiling a trademark with the state you conduct business in will protect the business within that specific state but won’t give nationwide protection. Common law rights allow you to claim a mark as your own if you are able to prove that you used the mark first. There are three types of trademark common law, state and federal.Ī federal registration is not always required.


For example, you can’t register the word “gelato” since it refers to ice-cream in Italian.
