Advantages Of Federal Trademark Registration With The USPTO

By simply using a trademark, a trademark owner is provided property rights and legal protections to their trademark. But, looking for a federal trademark registration with the USPTO offer trademark owners extra benefits they would not get if they only depend on their common law rights. In general, the advantages of federal trademark registration comprise putting competitors on notice of your rights to a trademark and making it simpler to sue competitors who break on your trademark rights.

Benefits provided by federal trademark registration comprise:

• A federal trademark registration service enables the proprietor of the trademark to use the ® symbol after the mark. This enables competitors and consumers to know that the trademark is protected federally. It also offers trustworthiness to the product or service in the mind of customers knowing the trademark owner invested the time and money in getting a trademark registration, even if they do not completely understand or know what that precisely means.
• Federal online trademark registration puts all competitors on notice that they could not utilize a confusingly similar trademark for associated goods or services. Competitors will be able to search easily and discover trademarks in the USPTO. The USPTO database serves as a caution to anyone thinking about entering a commercial area to avoid using phrases, terms, logos or other designs that include completely or partly the trademarks of a competitor in the field.
• After a trademark is registered at the USPTO, no one can register a confusingly alike trademark in connection with same goods and/or services. In other words, the government will assist guard your trademark rights without any particular attention or extra money. It is nice to have the power of the federal government on your side for a change!
• Unlike simple common law protection, a federal trademark registration offers trademark protection countrywide. In other words, a Los Angeles company will get trademark protection for their product across the United States instead of just in the local market. Thus, if they hope to expand to other regions at a later date, the path will be cleared for them from the perspective of a trademark.
• A federal trademark registration makes a presumption that the trademark is legitimate and owned by the listed owner exclusively on the trademark register. The presumption of legality and special ownership is particularly obliging when bringing a case against an infringer in court, as it will be up to the infringer to refute the presumption given by the USPTO that the trademark is not essentially legitimate or solely owned by the listed trademark owner on the USPTO register. In essence, the assumption of legality enables the owner of a trademark to more easily bring a trademark infringement case to federal court as the court will assume the trademark is legitimate and solely owned by the listed owner on the register.

Apart from allowing a civil case to be brought in federal court with the assumption of validity, a trademark registration enables the court to give thrice damages, attorney fees and more at the court’s judgment. Bringing a federal trademark infringement case can be expensive and pricey. Courts are permitted to offset these prices incurred by trademark owners when it is shown the infringer acted in dreadful faith.