Andrew Flusche, Virginia Lawyer

Most business owners understand that they need to take many steps to protect their legal rights. Even if you only have a small business, you need to take important steps to safeguard your rights and safeguard your future.

One thing you really need to think about with your business protection is trademark registration. Everyone knows that you can trademark things like your business name, but you don’t obtain the benefits of federal trademark registration unless you actually have a trademark attorney file the trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark office.

As a trademark attorney, I can help you file that application. It really is a simple process, it just requires a few quick questions answered from you and we can have the application on it’s way to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The fees involved are quite reasonable. The basic trademark registration fee is $325. Now, that may seem like a lot of money. But if you think about $325 of protection for your business, it really is nothing. For instance, you have insurance on your property. Why not have a little bit of protection for your company’s name, because that’s the very identity that you create when you’re building your company? You don’t want to lose that identity if you don’t have trademark registration.

The benefits of federal trademark registration are several. First of all, it gives nationwide notice of your trademark. Without actually having a federal registered trademark, you only acquire rights to your trademark within the geographic area where you have used it. If you have a little store in Fredericksburg or Stafford, and you really don’t do much business outside of the 50 mile radius of Fredericksburg and Stafford, then you are only going to acquire trademark rights in that area. But if you register the trademark on the Federal Register, you get nationwide rights to the trademark. Nationwide notice makes it where someone can’t open up a little store with the same name as yours in the next state or possibly even in the next city. It protects you against any use of that mark for your type of services and goods in the country.

Second, federal trademark registration entitles you to obtain treble damages from an infringer. You may also be able to recover any profits that the defendant received by using your trademark.

Third, federal trademark registration makes your mark incontestable after five years. This makes your trademark even stronger; it’s not just that third parties know about it, but that it actually does become a stronger mark in court. Incontestability means that you officially have the exclusive right to use your registered trademark.

If you need help obtaining a federal trademark registration, call me: 540-318-5824.

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First of all, don’t confuse owning trademark rights with actually registering the trademark. You may be able to claim ownership in a trademark even without filing a trademark application. More on that at a later date.

When you’re setting out to register trademarks for your company, what do you register? Do you register just the company’s name, or do you register the logo? What about both?

Basically, a trademark registration gives you a set amount of protection. If you include your logo design in the trademark, you are diluting that protection by spreading it around the visual elements.

If you focus your trademark registration on the company’s literal name, it protects your company against anyone using that name in any form. For example, McDonald’s® registration of their name successfully safeguards the company from competitors like McBagel.

To get the most bang for your legal expenditures, a lot of people focus on their company name first. But once you have the funds, it is a good idea to protect your logo as well.

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