Steps to ensure the legality of your trademark

Beginning a business and developing your brand constitutes an exciting process. You want to ensure that your business concept proves unique and protected by the United States government, so you made the decision to create and apply for a trademark.

Trademark laws make it simple to protect your brand idea or logo, but hiring an attorney to aid you in filing the correct legal documents ensures that your trademark requires protection and other businesses may not copy your trademarked business elements.

Essential preparation steps in choosing a trademark

Your livelihood may be based on the upholding of the trademark, so you want to follow all individual steps to protect it.

1. Choose a mark: The first step in developing a trademark is to choose a specific mark. To be legally protected, your mark must be both:

• Registerable with the United States Patent and Trademark Office; and
• Protectable by laws in the United States

Determine mark format: Next, you must decide on a mark format. These formats include:

• A standard character mark
• A stylized design mark
• A sound mark

Identify its use case: After, you must identify the exact goods and services that your trademark applies to.

Search for availability: Lastly, the most important step includes searching the USPTO database for existing trademarks. Because millions of marks exist, you want to ensure that your mark is unique and available within the database.

After you file, you will receive an approval or denial of your trademark use. If you use an attorney, you have the best chance of being issued a federally protected trademark, as their expertise can help you confirm that all necessary steps are completed.

Understand that you are responsible for ensuring that infringements of your trademark do not occur. If you experience an infringement or believe you have found your trademark being used by another company, you want to bring legal action with the help of an attorney.