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Trademark Tips for Your Business

November 27, 2007

The following post is a summary of the notes I took at our recent Networking Tea Party in Provo, Utah. Fairy Godmother, Kim Scoville an Attorney locally does trademark work for startups very affordably, $150 plus the cost of filing which is $325. If you would like to get in touch with Kim, please contact us, she doesn’t have a website. Kim used to manage over 3500 marks for NuSkin International and has assisted startups with their trademarks for the past 10 years.

You’ve created an idea. It’s unique, creative…it needs to be protected

Ways you can protect yourself legally:
1. Trademarks (the first thing that comes up is usually protecting your company name)
2. Copyrights
3. Patents
4. Trade Secrets

Just because your business name is available for the state, it doesn’t mean that your trademark is available!!!!! It is NOT availability from a legal perspective, only a license to do business.

Trademark attorney will search on trademark search databases to help you determine if your name has been used in other states and is already trademarked elsewhere for a similar industry. If the name is similar but isn’t in the same industry as you, then it can co-exist

Ideas are free, Conflicts are NOT free…so be wise as you move forward with selecting your name and considerations.

How do you select a good trademark?? There are 4 different types of “Names”

1. Generic Names such as “Build a Bear”

2. Descriptive Names such as “Nutrigrain”

3. Suggestive Names such as “Enfamil” (infant meal)

4. Arbitrary Names such as “Yahoo” “Saturn” “Apple”

Generic and descriptive marks are difficult to protect because they contain words that competitors are free to use. Eventually though, you can build recognition in your brand name, include creative elements in the appearance of the mark and then you can earn legal protection. Suggestive and arbitrary marks are easier to protect because they are unrelated (or not obviously related) to the product, or the terminology in the trade. Therefore they are distinctive. Suggestive and arbitrary marks give you the broadest protection when they are unlike anything else in your industry, because it is less likely that you will run into conflict.

You have to spell out what you intend to do with the trademark when you apply for it

Trademark Application: www.uspto.gov

Once on the USPTO site, go to the trademark side, search there for your name/intended name…great resource for searching before you go to an attorney to register. You don’t have to register, but she recommends that you do…because you have national rights, it may be in your best interest to do so and prevent legal conflict.

“TM”=means that you intend to use it, you can start using it without filing and until you have received official confirmation

When the trademark officially registers you are allowed to use “R”

Internationally you need to file it in every country you need to go, you need to file there BEFORE you start doing business there to be protected

Copyrights protect the way you choose they way you express your idea, it has to be tangible, embodied in music, paper, fabric, etc.

Copyright lasts the life of the author plus 70 years. If the work is owned by a corporation, 95 years after publication or 120 years after creation whichever expires first.

If it is nationally filed with a copyright and the Library of Congress keeps record of it and costs $35

Poor man’s copyright
Your copyrights begin when you create something. One way to prove the date when you first created a copyrightable work is to mail a copy of it to yourself in an envelope. Make sure the postmark is clear, and then never open it. It can be opened in court if a dispute arises. This is reasonably good proof for a court that you created it when you said you did.

It is always a good idea to mark you copyright on your work so that others know it is copyrighted work. You do this with a © followed by the date (calendar year) of first creation and the name or initials of the owner (your name or your company name). If the work was created on one date, but later updated or enhanced, you can put two dates separated by a comma. If there is room on the back or on the packaging, you can restate your copyright in more detail by listing your contact information (in case someone wants to get permission from you to use your work) and include the statement “all rights reserved.” The word Copyrights refer to a bundle of rights including the right to display, perform and copy. This is the reason for the statement “all rights reserved.”

Patent protects new, useful, and non-obvious products

Trade Secrets, who you know, what your secret formula are, your customers, etc. you need to protect with your employees, other companies, etc. HAVE THEM SIGN AN NDA.

PLEASE LEAVE YOUR QUESTIONS FOR KIM HERE…

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