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The Process of Becoming Certain and Committing, and How it Relates to TrademarksHow many times has somebody given you a perfectly logical explanation of why you needed to do something for your business? You agreed it made perfect sense. You said it yourself, “Yes, this is something I should do,...

After the Opposition PeriodWhat happens if, after missing the opposition period, another party believing they have a prior right realizes the trademark is in force? They could go to court and petition the judge to find your trademark registration is invalid and belongs to them. However, in support of predictability...

They are pronounced like "niece" for Nice as a city, not like "nice" as in "oh, how nice!" So most countries in the world have adopted a system where they group all possible products and services into 45 categories that they call classes. So there are 34 classes, or categories,...

How Are Official Marks Different?The main difference between Official Marks and other trademarks is that they do not represent any particular goods or services; They cover everything. For example, if a university registers an official mark for that name, they can prevent anyone from using it as their trademark....

What Happens?Some party files a statement of opposition petitioning the trademark office not to register your mark because of any number of reasons. Usually, they believe your registration will hurt their rights or legitimate interests. It is your responsibility to respond and prove that your reasons for registration outweigh...

What Is An Ornamental Use Trademark?The U.S. Trademarks Office doesn't like it. It’s a trademark that can’t be registered because it’s used as an ornament or design. Ornamental Trademarks DefinitionOrnamental trademarks are what the Trademarks Office says are unregistrable because they don't perform the function...

There are multiple things that can happen after you file your trademark application and multiple reasons that the Trademarks Office may write back to you with some objections about what they don't like about your trademark application. Many of these objections can easily be dealt with and fixed and tweaked...

The Perfect ProblemMistake number one is agonizing in your search for that perfect brand. While a good brand is essential, even a fantastic brand will not create your business. It's up to you to develop that product or service millions of consumers want to buy. Obscurity is the biggest challenge...

Questions for Confusingly Similar Trademark ProductWhat they do is they think of a fictional character, they call it a "consumer in a hurry" who may have heard about the first brand, have seen it, or have some memory of it. It's what's called an imperfect recollection of that first brand....