Trademark Attorneys
Orange County, Riverside County and Los Angeles County with Irvine, Riverside, and Glendale Offices
It is important to protect the distinctive sign, symbols, words, sounds, logos, phrases and mottos associated with your business services and goods to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source. These are what makes your company unique; your success can be hampered if these essential components of the business are misappropriated or wrongly used by others. These symbols and services, known as trademarks, are central to the success of your business and should be protected.
Terms such as “mark”, “brand” and “logo” are sometimes used interchangeably with “trademark”. “Trademark”, however, also includes any device, brand, label, name, signature, word, letter, numerical, shape of goods, packaging, color or combination of colors, smell, sound, movement or any combination thereof which is capable of distinguishing goods and services of one business from those of others. It must be capable of graphical representation and must be applied to goods or services for which it is registered.
Why register a trademark?
Registering a trademark will protect your exclusive right to use the trademark nationwide. It will also legally prevent others from using a similar product name or image that might be connected with your company. Trademark protection allows trademark owners to take action against those who illegally use or infringe upon another’s trademark.
Nationwide priority gives trademark owners protection in a much broader geographical area than you would otherwise enjoy. For this reason, it is frequently cited as the most important benefit of registration. Without federal registration (i.e. under the common law), you must use your mark in a territory in order to have protection there. Since most business do not spread across the country overnight, national expansion is a risky business without a federal trademark. That is because anybody who uses your mark in a different territory than you, and does so prior to your federal registration, will have the ability to stop you from using the mark in the particular region of the country in which they have established their business. If you already find yourself in the situation that there are others using your mark in different regions of the country, all is not lost. You can at least stop their expansion by registering your trademark federally. And if you fail to do so, they may register first and stop you from expanding, even regionally.
At Grant’s Law Firm, we help you acquire a federal registered trademark issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. We have assisted all types of companies with trademark registration and protection, from multinational corporations to closely held Southern California small businesses.
Our trademark services:
Helping business clients with trademark issues is part of our strong Intellectual Property practice. Our experienced attorneys:
- Perform comprehensive U.S. and common law searches for existing trademarks to ensure uniqueness;
- Apply for international registration through the Madrid Protocol;
- Conduct international trademark searches;
- Respond to rejection or clarification requests;
- Complete and file petitions;
- Resolve U.S. Customs seizures based on trademark infringement;
- Complete statements of use;
- Complete Section 8 and Section 15 declarations;
- Complete Section 9 renewal applications;
- Undertake trademark appeals;
- Draft trademark opinion letters;
- Develop opposition to other trademarks;
- Register trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office;
- Protect brand name or family of trademarks.
Experienced trademark lawyers with access to needed resources
We have access to a national trademark registry and an international database of trademarks. This allows us to evaluate the uniqueness of your proposed trademark. After you receive our report on the likelihood of a successful application for registration, our attorneys help register your mark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Federal trademark laws do not permit use and registration of a mark which is the same as or confusingly similar in appearance, sound or meaning to another mark for the same or similar product or service. A mark which is descriptive of the product or the service is not generally registerable. In addition, a surname is not generally registerable. The first to use the mark has the exclusive right to the mark as against anyone who subsequently attempts to use the mark. This right is limited to the geographical area where the mark is used, but by registering the mark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the right is extended to the entire United States.
Trademark Monitoring
Trademark monitoring provides you with timely notice of any new, potentially harmful trademark applications as they become available. As a trademark owner, you have a right by law to object to any new applications that may, in your view, be harmful to your trademark. When a trademark is granted that is identical or similar to yours it has the ability to harm your business. The competitive trademark can cause confusion among your customers as they try to distinguish your specific goods and services from those of your competitor.
Contact us at Grant’s Law Firm in Glendale, Riverside, Indian Wells or Irvine. Learn how we use our dedication and experience when working with you during the trademark registration and protection process. Call our Los Angeles County, Riverside County, or Orange County offices to speak with a trademark lawyer.