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Applying for a trademark
Before you can Apply for trademark , you must be able to prove that you are the owner of the mark. This can be done by showing proof of use for a minimum of three years. You must also file an application for trademark registration with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
What the law requires you to do
Before you can register your mark with the USPTO, you must have a good reason for wanting to use the mark. For example, if you’re selling clothing and want to sell it under the name “Hannah Montana,” then this would be considered too suggestive of who Hannah Montana is and therefore not an appropriate trademark for your product line.
If there’s any doubt about whether or not registering under a particular name will be helpful for your business goals—as opposed to being merely a marketing ploy—then it’s best to wait until after things have been established before making any decisions on whether or not registering should occur.
How to apply for a trademark
To file a trademark, you will need to pay a fee and submit a completed application. Your application must include the following:
- A specimen of your mark, logo or packaging (if applicable).
- The official language in which you intend to use it in Canada; this can be English or French.
Can’t start your application if you don’t have the money
- You will need to have enough money to pay for the application.
- If you don’t have the time or resources, then it’s not worth investing in trademarking your name and logo.
Don’t just randomly use “pizza” or “cars” in your mark.
Don’t use a name or logo that is too generic. If a company has been around for a long time, it’s likely that people will assume this means they sell pizza or cars and won’t think twice about what you do. But if you were to register two different marks with the same word, such as “Pizza Pete’s” (which is not an actual trademark), customers may feel misled by the fact they’re buying from someone who sells pizza but isn’t called Pizza Pete’s. So be careful when choosing names for your business; try to find something unique that describes what your company does without being too specific so there won’t be any confusion later on down the road when people start associating certain words with your brand!
You can register a name and logo that is unique and will last forever, with just a minimum amount of effort.
Trademark law is very strict, and trademark law can be very expensive to defend. It’s important to note that trademark lawyers are not cheap.
Trademark lawyers charge anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 for each hour of work on your case (and that’s just for a basic search). If you want to go after someone who has made it into court or even won against you in court (like McDonald’s), then expect them to charge upwards of $100 per hour for their time spent defending against your claim(s).
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) grants trademarks rights to establishments that meet certain criteria. This includes:
- A showing of use in commerce, usually a year or more
- Goods and services must be offered for sale at the time of application, or within three months after registration becomes effective
The USPTO also has rules for granting, registering and maintaining trademarks.
Trademarks are words, names or trademarks in use for over one year that give a company or product distinctiveness.
They are used to identify and distinguish the source of a good or service from others. Trademarks can be words, names, symbols or phrases that you have registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Trademark rights protect against infringement by others using an identical mark on its goods or services in commerce without authorization from you as owner of the trademark rights. A trademark must be distinctive enough so as not confuse consumers into believing that goods come from your company when they really don’t come from you at all; otherwise there would not be any incentive for them to buy anything from you because everyone else uses similar trademarks!
You can only get a trademark if the mark is capable of distinguishing your goods from those of other businesses. And that’s not just any old word or logo: It has to be a logo, or at least something close enough to one (such as the letter “p” or the circle).
To prove that your mark meets this requirement, you’ll need to show that it has been used in commerce for at least three years before filing for registration. If you don’t have evidence showing how long your business has been around, then there may be problems with its distinctiveness later on down the road when someone else tries to register their own mark for similar goods/services/services which infringes on yours; so keep copies handy!
Using elements of your logo may help establish your distinctive nature.
The best way to use your logo is in a distinctive way. In other words, it should be used on something that will set you apart from other businesses and help establish your brand or business name as unique.
If you have a logo that includes a word or phrase, but the word isn’t in any way tied directly to what your company does (for example: “We Sell Furniture”), then it’s probably not worth using in this situation because people won’t know what they’re looking at when they see the mark. But if there is an element of your trademarked name that identifies what kind of business you run (for example: “We Sell Furniture”), then this can help establish both who owns which company as well as how important this particular type of product is compared with others offered by competitors within their industry category!
Generic terms and common terms are not allowed on trademarks.
Generic terms and common terms are not allowed on trademarks.
Generic terms are words that are not unique to any particular product or service. Common words such as “hotel,” “candy,” and even the name of your company (e.g., “Schlitz Brewing Company”) can be generic because they’ve been used in commerce by many businesses over time. Because of this, courts have held them to be generic when applied to a trademarked term with a meaning similar to their own (i.e., Hotel & Apartments).
Examples: The phrase “big brother” could be considered a common term because it’s used throughout television shows and movies about vigilantes who monitor criminals’ actions without violating their privacy rights; however this phrase does not apply equally well when applied against any other type of organization or individual who might use surveillance technology on behalf of law enforcement agencies like the FBI or CIA.”
USPTO trademark filing require fees, which must be paid within 6 months of application. The amount of these fees varies by type of application and whether it is a first or subsequent use.
- First-time applicants are required to pay a non-refundable $375 filing fee; however, if you have not previously filed any trademarks that were registered with us (or another federally recognized agency), then you may apply for up to three separate trademarks at no additional cost.
- If your mark has been registered in the past with us (or another officially recognized trademark registration authority), then we will only charge you $250 per added mark upon submission of an amended registration file containing essentially all changes made since last time around including any new goods/services offered under those marks; however, there may be additional fees associated with some specialized types like “word” marks where there’s more than one word involved – for example: “Crystal Books.”
