What Is A Trademark? Everything You Need To Know (2024)

When picturing your favorite brands, odds are excellent that your first thoughts will include signature logo images or slogans, such as the arrow from A to Z that Amazon uses. The reason you instantly think of these identifiers is because companies created a distinct trademark (or just “mark”), and then used it consistently across all their marketing. Formalizing a product or service with a registered mark not only offers necessary legal protection, but it also provides businesses with a surefire visual tool to connect with consumers. Here’s what you need to know about trademarks and how they can help your business.

What is a Trademark?

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a trademark is “a word, phrase, symbol or design that identifies your goods and services” and distinguishes your brand from competitors. A trademark is used for goods, while a service mark is used for services. A trademark gives you the exclusive right to use your mark and helps prevent competitors from using a mark that’s the same as or very similar to yours.

Simply using a name, logo or slogan in your business gives it some level of trademark protection, though these “common law” trademarks are hard to enforce and apply only in your immediate locality. You can get statewide trademark protection by registering your trademark with your state. But the strongest and most far-reaching trademark protection comes from registering your mark with the USPTO.

Federal trademark registration:

• Creates a public record of your trademark ownership
• Prevents other people from registering trademarks that are deceptively similar to yours
• Gives you the right to sue in federal court if someone infringes your mark
• Makes it easier to register your mark in other countries
• Can be used to stop the importation of goods that infringe your mark
• Gives you the right to use the registered trademark symbol, ®.

While copyrights protect original authored works, such as a song, novel, work of art or database, upon their creation, trademarks offer protection for items of intellectual property that help define a brand.

What can be trademarked?

• Product names and nicknames (for example, both Coca-Cola and co*ke are marked)
• Logos
• Sounds (like the distinct NBC chimes)
• Business names
• Slogans (like Nike’s “Just Do It”)
• Color combinations or schemes (like the brown of a UPS truck)
• Smells (yes, smells. Hasbro received a Play-Doh scent trademark in 2018)

What can’t be trademarked?

• Any mark that is already in use, or is too similar to a mark already in use
• Generic descriptive words
• Commonly used phrases or messages
• Direct religious quotes and passages

To get federal trademark protection, your mark must be distinctive and not likely to be confused with an existing trademark. When considering a trademark, focus on what you are offering, why it’s different and what makes it stand out. Avoid generic descriptions of your product or service–the more distinct your proposed mark is, the better odds that the application will be approved. Plan to spend a good deal of time searching the USPTO website for any trademarks in use that may be considered similar to yours.

Trademarks are extremely specific–your mark will only apply to the type, or “class” of goods or services for which you seek protection. Other companies can still use your mark for other types of goods or services. For example, “Delta” is a name brand for both an airline and a faucet.

How to Get a Trademark

While obtaining a trademark used to be a paper-filled undertaking, the U.S Patent and Trademark Office has thankfully streamlined the process by taking it online. Be prepared for a lengthy wait for approval. A series of stages are involved, and the USPTO tells applicants to be prepared to wait 12 to 18 months for a decision.

Getting a trademark is broken down into several steps:

Step 1: Identify Your Trademark

Once you’ve chosen a potential trademark, you’ll need to do some research and decide how you want your mark to be protected. Here’s how:

• Search the USPTO database to determine if similar words, designs, goods or services you are seeking to trademark are already in use.
• Choose your mark format, which is either a standard character mark, a design mark or a sound mark.
• Specify the exact goods and services that the trademark will apply to and the corresponding trademark class using the list available on the ID Master List.
• Select what your filing basis will be.

Step 2: Submit Your Application

Create a USPTO account, then prepare and submit your application online. Note that the initial trademark fees will be either $250 or $350 per class of goods or services, depending on whether you choose TEAS Plus or TEAS Standard.

Step 3: Wait for Approval

The USPTO will determine if your application meets the filing requirements, then assign it a serial number and send it to an examining attorney for review. If the attorney finds issues with your application, you’ll receive a letter which you must respond to if you want to keep your application active.

You will receive a letter of either approval or denial of your trademark application. If approved, your mark will be published in the “Official Gazette,” the weekly newsletter of the USPTO. After publication, any party who believes they may be damaged by the mark has 30 days to file an opposition. If there’s no opposition, or if opposition is resolved in your favor, your mark will be registered.

Step 4: Complete the Final Paperwork

A USPTO trademark registration will need to be maintained for as long as you wish to hold the mark. Specific documents must be completed, along with an annual check of the Trademark Status and Document Retrieval (TSDR) system, to ensure that your registration does not expire.

Different Trademark Symbols Explained

There are three different symbols that can be used to indicate a trademark:

• ™: This is the most popular trademark symbol, and anyone can use it, regardless of registration status. Adding this symbol lets other businesses know you have claimed a name, logo or slogan as your own.
• ®: Only trademarks that have USPTO approval can use this symbol, which stands for registered trademark.
• ℠: This symbol is a “service mark.” As its name suggests, it’s used for services only, not products. Just like the ™, you can use this symbol without registering.

Frequently Asked Questions