Trademark Attorneys in Westchester County, Connecticut and New York
Important Information from Trademark Law Esq.
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- Albert Vollmer |
At Trademark Law Esq., we offer decades of experience to individuals and businesses internationally and across the U.S., while also servicing clients in Westchester County, Fairfield County and the surrounding communities in New York and Connecticut. We handle a broad range of intellectual property matters, from trademark registration and trademark litigation to copyrights, domain name disputes and licensing issues.
We conduct our practice with a commitment to personal service, treating every client as if they are our only client, and devoting all our energy and resources to each case. We will also provide prompt, thorough and thoughtful answers to all your questions.
To set up an appointment, contact our office or call us at 914-381-2728.
Ten Important Reasons Why You Should Register Your Trademark
1) Nationwide Priority
By registering your trademark at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, you obtain a nationwide priority of use of the Mark in conjunction with your goods or services. If you do not register your trademark, you may be severely restricting your trademark rights to a narrow geographic area that may prevent you from expanding your business to another location.
2) The Right to Sue in Federal Court
You can bring an action in federal court and access injunctive relief should someone violate your rights. Federal registration also allows you to seek treble damages and reasonable attorney fees if you prevail in court.
Registration further provides the advantage of a legal presumption that you are the trademark owner, the Mark is valid, and that you have the exclusive right to use the trademark nationally.
3) Protection of a Valuable Asset
Registration increases the value of the Mark as an asset. Once a trademark has value, you may profit by licensing use of the Mark or by assigning the Mark to a third party. Moreover, if there comes a time when you want to sell your business, having registered your trademarks is critical because failure to register may reduce the value of your business since it increases the buyer's risk that a competing trademark will limit his plans for the business.
4) Competitors are Put on Notice
It allows you to give notice to the public of your claim of ownership of the Mark. If a competitor adopts a confusingly similar Mark, they can be stopped from using it. Even if they were unaware of your trademark, they could not claim ignorance. Federal trademark registration provides nationwide constructive notice to others that the registered Mark is owned by you. It acts as a preventative mechanism to discourage competitors from infringing on your rights for fear of legal ramifications.
5) Use of ®
Once you register your trademark you gain the right to use ® or "Registered Trademark" wording in conjunction with your Mark.
6) Incontestable Rights
If you register your trademark and continue to use the registered Mark for five consecutive years, you can file an Affidavit of Incontestability. Essentially, your trademark rights become incontestable. If you have to litigate a dispute in court, nearly every defense to trademark infringement would be eliminated.
7) Your Registration is a Tool in Fighting Cybersquatters
What if a third party infringes your trademark by registering it as a domain name? You can use your registration as evidence of your trademark rights in a domain name dispute. Thus, this will force the cybersquatter to relinquish the infringing domain name without you having to incur litigation expenses. Moreover, there are other types of trademark infringement that occur on the Internet. Should you need to make a complaint with ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) or with a search engine, you will have to prove you have trademark rights and the most efficient way to do this is to provide evidence of your Trademark Certificate of Registration.
8) Reserve Your Rights to Expand Your Business while Restricting Your Competitors' Rights
Since trademarks in the U.S. are based on use, by federally registering your Mark, you may restrict the use of a similarly confusing Mark by those possessing senior common law rights (unregistered rights) to the geographic area(s) of use as of the effective date of your trademark registration.
9) Basis for Foreign Registration
You can use your U.S. registration as a basis to obtain registration(s) in foreign countries.
10) Prevent Importation of Infringing Goods
You can file the U.S. registration with the U.S. Customs Service to prevent importation of infringing foreign goods.
Contact Trademark Law Esq.
To set up an appointment, send us an e-mail or call our office at 914-381-2728. Our lawyers represent individuals and businesses in New York, Connecticut and across the nation.