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Many small businesses think that registering their trade or service mark is a luxury they cannot afford. The filing fee with the US Patent and Trademark Office is $ 325 for each mark in each class and if an attorney is used, as is often the case, there are also legal fees. If the business is small and plans to remain small, the owner reasons that applying for federal registration is something that will never benefit his business. In many cases, that reasoning is wrong.
For many businesses, even some very small businesses, a trade or service mark is a valuable business asset. There are many reasons why a company should consider registering its US trademarks and service marks at the federal level. Here are five good reasons to get protection from a federal record:
You may one day want to expand your business to another location.
The owner of a federal trademark has all trademark rights throughout the United States, except for previously existing “common law rights” only. Your common law to your marks extends only to the area where your marks were being used at the time someone else filed your application. In other words, if someone requests and receives a trademark registration for their unregistered trademark, from that point on, their use is limited to what they were doing on the effective date of the trademark. You are fenced off.
Some day you will sell your business
Trademarks and service marks are often key factors in the valuation of a company. For that reason, many buyers look at the seller’s trademark protection when doing their due diligence. If the potential buyer values your trademark or service mark as a key component of your business goodwill, the lack of a registry can reduce the value of your business because it increases the buyer’s risk that a competing brand will limit their plans. for business.
You may need to respond to a cease and desist letter
If an owner of an identical or similar trademark sends you a cease and desist letter claiming that your trademark infringes theirs, you must respond. If your trademark is registered, noting that fact is usually enough to make the complaint of infringement disappear. While proof of your common law rights may also disprove the claim, maintaining such proof requires good planning and good record keeping. A trademark only requires directing the complaining owner to the USPTO website.
You want to protect your trademark as a domain name
ICANN’s domain name dispute resolution process establishes a mandatory administrative procedure to resolve most claims related to the rights to use a domain name. To require the infringing domain owner to submit to the mandatory procedure, the complaining party must first demonstrate that they have trademark or service mark rights in the name. Testing a trademark is easy; just quote the trademark registration number. Testing common law rights can be very difficult and may prevent you from using the dispute resolution process.
Your brand is relatively expensive to replace
If you can easily replace your trademark or service mark by simply repainting a sign or two and replacing a graphic file on your website, the cost of protecting your trademark may outweigh the cost of replacing it if it is ever contested. Giving in can be cheap and easy if the brand has no significant value and is used only in a few places. On the other hand, if a new branding means you will have to replace all of your letterhead, envelopes, and invoices, reprint your marketing materials, repaint your delivery trucks, and discard all those coffee mugs and baseball caps that have your trademark on it. printed. , then spending a little money to get a trademark may not be a bad idea.
If none of these reasons apply to your business, then it may make sense to reduce the cost of registering your trademark or service mark. Of course, you should also keep your fingers crossed because these aren’t the only reasons getting a trademark is a good idea.
If even one of the reasons seems to apply to your business, then you should carefully weigh the costs and benefits of filing for your trademark or service mark. It is a small price to pay if your brand will be an integral part of your growing business.