Top Reasons To File a Trademark Application

File a trademark application to gain protection and enforcement of a brand, logo, slogan, or other source-identifying mechanism.

• To Protect Your Trademark – Very basically, filing a trademark application to register your mark federally is an essential step in protecting your mark. It gives defensive and offensive benefits, and is absolutely critical in protecting your brand and brand value.
• You’re Expanding Your Brand – You’ve got an existing line of products under a brand name, but you’re expanding that brand to a new line. A trademark registration will help protect that new line, and prevent others from using similar names.
• You’re Expanding Geographically – Because a federal trademark registration provides national priority but can be established with quasi-local use, you can prevent others from using your mark around the nation, thus letting you expand from a local or regional use into a larger geographic area.
• Presumption of Ownership – Parties that use your trademark after you do are infringers, presumed to have knowledge of your trademark registration. Registering a trademark establishes constructive use across the entire nation.
• Basis for Foreign Protection – A trademark application filed in the US can be made the basis for foreign protection, either through direct national filings or via an international registration under the Madrid Protocol
• Asset Establishment – Trademarks are representations of goodwill, and as such, can establish considerable value on a company’s books that otherwise would be difficult to quantify and attribute
• Perpetual Protection – Trademarks are unique in that they provide continuing protection for as long as it they are used.
• Multiple Avenues of Enforcement – A federally registered trademark can be enforced through a variety of mechanisms:
  • Cease and desist letters are often the most cost-effective, and depending on the recipient and the grounds, can be the most legally effective
  • Infringement can be proven through a lawsuit. Lawsuits are expensive, but can result in the award of damages
  • UDRP – A Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy proceeding can be used to wrest a domain name that infringes on a trademark. If a cybersquatter is using your trademark in a domain name, a UDRP proceeding can grab that domain name back
  • Customs – Registering your trademark with US Customs helps control importation of infringing products