Please reference the Terms of Use and the Supplemental Terms for specific information related to your state. Grow Your Legal Practice. Meet the Editors. What Good Is an Unregistered Trademark? Unregistered trademarks still provide some degree of protection under state law. Rights Concerning Unregistered Trademarks Laws concerning unregistered marks are derived from a common law English business principle: If someone attracts customers known as "consumer goodwill" , then it is unfair for someone else to falsely pass off products or services with a similar name.
Limited Rights for Unregistered Trademarks As noted, an unregistered first user of a trademark can often claim trademark rights within the relevant geographic area.
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Find a Trademarks Lawyer. However, people often use the term trademark to reference both. Their purpose is to protect against consumer confusion. However, registering a trademark makes it easier to enforce while offering wider protection.
If your business sells products, you may wish to register your business name for trademark as well as your products. By trademarking your business name, you brand the face of your company. If your products have a unique name, you also may opt to trademark them — if those product names meet trademark eligibility requirements.
Cars offer one example of product names that become their own brand and may warrant a trademark. Similar to a business name trademark application, which requires you to select the classes your company covers, product trademark applications ask you to select the classes your product covers — just with more specificity. Your business name is vital to your business. Your business name has the power to make or break your company. Registering your business name for a trademark offers several key benefits.
Specifically, it helps you:. An attorney can help you with a more thorough search of the same or similar names, filling out the often technical and confusing application, and staying on top of your application.
In addition, you should search beyond that database to ensure no other company currently uses your business name with an unregistered trademark. You can conduct this secondary search by using an internet search engine, researching domain databases like GoDaddy or Name.
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