Trademark Lawyers in Marietta Helping Trademark Your Brand | Serving All of Georgia

Are you launching a new brand, or is your company starting to get big? While worrying about trademark law should not be your business’s very first concern, it is important to ensure your intellectual property rights are protected from competitors and those who would wish to do your business harm. To better defend your intellectual property under the law, it is wise to speak with an attorney having extensive experience working in trademark law.

Applying for a trademark can be complicated and time-consuming. At InPrime Legal, we have been serving clients seeking trademarks for years. By hiring us, your business can benefit by having a legal team with the skills and resources necessary to assist in protecting your intellectual property rights and to help avoid future trademark infringement litigation.

InPrime Legal represents businesses in all types of legal matters, including applying for and protecting trademarks. To speak to a trademark lawyer, please contact our office to schedule a free evaluation. Just as you and your business have rights, it is critical to protect your products and intellectual property too. To better protect your brand and all you have built, to better avoid litigation and disputes over infringement in the jurisdiction of the Federal Court, please consult with our firm today.

What Are Different Types of Intellectual Property Protection? 

There are four types of intellectual property protections in the United States of America: the trademark, the patent, the copyright, and trade secrets.

Trademarks provide legal protection to a brand’s name, logo, slogan, and certain specific phrases or terms. Special designs and types of packaging can also be trademarked. To qualify for a trademark, the product, name, or slogan must be unique. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will likely deny any trademark application if they deem the applicant to be too similar to any previously registered trademarks.

Patents are for newly invented products. You cannot patent mere ideas. The inventor must show a clear vision for how they came up with their product including any further revisions. Successful patent applications often include proof of the item’s usefulness, some how-to regarding manufacturing, a vision of how it will be used in the marketplace, and also prove some novelty to experts tasked with reviewing the application. In the modern-day, most patents are issued for new types of technology, software, machinery, and gadgetry.

Copyrights provide protection to the creators of original work that is the result of artistic expression or creative pursuits. Books, music, art, painting, film, television entertainment, literature, educational material, and even architecture can be copyrighted. Unlike other forms of intellectual property protection, one does not need to file for copyright in the United States. Simply by proving that one is the original creator, one can claim to have copyright protection. Copyrights only last for so long, however, and will usually expire 70 years after the death of the creator. If you create a piece of art and someone else tries to steal or misuse it without your express permission, they can be sued for copyright infringement. To learn more about copyright infringement and whether filing for extra copyright protection is wise, please consider speaking with one of our attorneys with experience in copyright law.

Trade secrets are intellectual property that may pertain to formulas, recipes, designs, processes, sales strategies, marketing practices, and any collection of business information that holds economic value by being kept secret. A company must make a strong effort to protect its trade secrets. If the trade secret IP is released to the public, bad-faith actors, or the company’s competitors, then the IP and the company could lose value.

What Are the Qualifications for Obtaining a Trademark from the USPTO? 

The first step in applying for trademark protection is to understand what type of trademark you want and whether your product or brand qualifies for that mark. If you wish to trademark a symbol or design, a drawing or proof of concept may be required with the application.

At this point, it is important to conduct a thorough search to ensure there are no previously registered trademarks that are identical or confusingly similar to that which you wish to protect. While you may feel your brand or slogan is unique enough, the USPTO will have to make the final determination as to whether your new trademark could lead to confusion by being too similar. You can browse the federal database of trademarks using the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS).

At this point, individuals or businesses must put together an application. The applicant must include name, address, and national citizenship. If the application is for an LLC or any other business owned by multiple parties, then each owner may need to include their information. The applicant(s) must provide examples of the trademarked item(s) used or intended to be used, along with a detailed description of the products, designs, and/or word phrases. Attempt to provide the date in which you first used the name or product you are seeking to protect via trademark law.

The application will be reviewed and examined by the USPTO. If it is denied, you may not expect to see any money back in the exchange. If it is accepted, the trademark must be put in use and regularly renewed to maintain protecting your intellectual property as intended.

Ultimately, to qualify for a trademark, the item, name, or product in question must be in use (or there must be a clearly stated intent to use) and must be especially unique. Our InPrime Legal team can help you understand what is and is not capable of receiving a trademark.

What Services in Trademark Law Can We Assist You With? 

At InPrime Legal, your trademark lawyer will be well-equipped to help you with several different types of matters relating to trademark law, including legal services like:

• Trademark registration services.
• Trademark licensing.
• Trademark maintenance.
• Cease and desist letters.
• Alternatives to litigation in cases of dispute over infringement

Contact the Business Law Firm of InPrime Legal

To better protect your intellectual property and thereby defend your business or LLC, it would be wise to seek to trademark your key products. To speak to a trademark lawyer, contact InPrime Legal today. Our practice has extensive experience providing our clients with winning services and useful resources in trademark law.

To schedule a free case evaluation, please contact our Marietta, GA office.  770-282-8967.