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Intellectual Property Law

TradeMark Express: A Daily Blog

Trademarks, copyrights, patents, starting a business and other miscellaneous topics.

Post Frequency: 0.8/day

Last Entry: March 20, 2020 at 18:57:00

The Problem with the USPTO: Flaw

Posted on July 23, 2008
The Problem with the USPTO: Flaw #2 ? Appearance The USPTO offers a fantastic free resource for potential trademark owners ? the ability to search the Feeral trademark files for free. To get started, go here and click on the Search link that's located in the right-hand column...

The Problem with the USPTO: Flaw

Posted on July 23, 2008
The Problem with the USPTO: Flaw #3 ? Meaning The USPTO offers a fantastic free resource for potential trademark owners ? the ability to search the Feeral trademark files for free. To get started, go here and click on the Search link that's located in the right-hand column...

What does it take to get a Filing

Posted on June 13, 2008
What does it take to get a Filing Date? There are a variety of different dates for any given Federal trademark application ? filing date, status date, publication date, first use date, first use in commerce date and registration date. I'll devote a few posts to each one...

Unsolicited Trademark Mailings:

Posted on June 10, 2008
Unsolicited Trademark Mailings: A Warning from INTA When TradeMark Express started preparing and submitting Federal trademark applications for clients, we heard almost immediately about official-looking mailings they received requesting more money to either monitor their mark or to be listed in a "trademark registration directory...

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Breaking Down the CodeLast month

Posted on June 09, 2008
Breaking Down the CodeLast month we took a quick look at how to conduct a logo search at the USPTO. This month let's look closer at the USPTO Design Code Manual.All designs have a 6-digit code, which the USPTO assigns to each filed design. The design search code system is very Dewey Decimal-esque in that each 2-digit section denotes a specific category...

Starting a Business in FloridaVisit

Posted on May 14, 2008
Starting a Business in FloridaVisit the Department of State's Starting a Business page. The Small Business Development Center is also a great resource.1) Write a business plan Here are a couple of posts I've devoted to this subject - Business Plans: A Quick Guide and Piecing Together the Business Plan...

It's Graph Time Again! As promised

Posted on May 07, 2008
It's Graph Time Again! As promised in this post, I'm revisiting the USPTO's Performance & Accountability Report. I decided to take a look at the highest number of applications filed based on state residency. Here are the top 6 out of the 310,296 applications filed by residents of the US:Now let's take a look at these same states to see how many made it to registration...

TradeMark Express Value Package

Posted on May 02, 2008
TradeMark Express Value Package We've added a new option when it comes to getting your trademark. TradeMark Express will search your mark in the pending & registered Federal and State trademark files AND in the US National Common-Law files. Based on your approval, we will then prepare AND file your US Federal trademark application - all for one fee of $399...

Starting a Business in California

Posted on April 22, 2008
Starting a Business in California When starting a business in California, start your research at these two sites: The California Business Portal & The Secretary of State's Starting a Business page.On the SOS' page, you'll see the Secretary of State details 5 recommended steps: 1) Write a business plan Here are a couple of posts I've devoted to this subject - Business Plans: A Quick Guide and Piecing Together the Business Plan...

Fun With Graphs Every year the

Posted on April 21, 2008
Fun With Graphs Every year the USPTO publishes an online Performance and Accountability Report, which contains some pretty interesting statistics about patents & trademarks. I used this site to create a couple of graphs to provide a visual on these stats...

Starting a Business in... Being

Posted on April 18, 2008
Starting a Business in... Being in the trademark biz, we get a lot of questions from folks about starting their own business in their state of residence. Admittedly, I don't know a lot of the ins & outs required for each state. I think it's high time I educated myself...

Logo Search: Trudging through the

Posted on April 15, 2008
Logo Search: Trudging through the USPTOSearching for designs on the USPTO site is a bit tricky. I'll explain it step by step.First, go to this link. This is the searchable design search code manual. Type in simple keywords that describe your logo. For instance, typing in telephone brings up the 6-digit codes for telephones, telephone poles, answering machines, etc...

Copyrights & Trademarks: Do

Posted on April 04, 2008
Copyrights & Trademarks: Do You Need Both? Protecting the intellectual property aspects of your business is a worthwhile investment. However, it is difficult to know what form of intellectual property works for what facets of your business. Let's take the time to break all that down...

Small Business Trademarks: Who

Posted on April 03, 2008
Small Business Trademarks: Who Needs 'Em? Anyone that's started a small business or is in the throes of starting a small business knows how overwhelming it can be just to get to opening day. You've got licenses & permits to think about, what sort of business entity structure is right, where the money is going to come from, and on and on...

US Patent & Trademark Office:

Posted on April 02, 2008
US Patent & Trademark Office: Navigating the Web Site Anyone that's had to slog through a governmental web site knows how confusing it can be at times. That being said, let's take a virtual walk together through the web site of the US Patent & Trademark Office...

Viva Las Vegas Photo SourceI've

Posted on March 20, 2008
Viva Las Vegas Photo SourceI've got Vegas on the brain as I'll be heading out that way tomorrow. As a result, the blog posts won't be happening again until next week when I come back, hopefully with a little more jingle jangle in my pockets. So I thought I'd use Las Vegas as an inspiration point to check out some of the more interesting Vegas-tinged trademarks:Dave's Fabulous Las Vegas Barbecue Sauce...

Refusal on Basis of Ornamentation

Posted on March 18, 2008
Refusal on Basis of Ornamentation I've devoted a few posts to the subject of trademarks and clothing lines but it wasn't until I was talking with a client yesterday that I realized I had answered the what but not the why.I was explaining to the client that submitting a picture of a t-shirt with his clothing line name on the front would not suffice as proof of use for the USPTO...

How Slow Can the PTO Go?I had intended

Posted on March 17, 2008
How Slow Can the PTO Go?I had intended the post for today to be a follow-up to these 2 posts:O Romeo, Romeo & When Applications Go Wrong.To sum up, these posts were about potential problems for the applications of Romeo & for La Bella Bella Maternity...

McCain Winning '08 Presidential

Posted on March 10, 2008
McCain Winning '08 Presidential Trademark Race The presidential race is heating up and with any flurry of political activity comes an influx of trademarks hoping to capitalize on the nation's interest.John McCain 2008 - The Exploratory Committee currently has two Federal trademarks, one registered & one pending, for "McCain Space" and "McCain...

Trademark vs. Service Mark Simply

Posted on March 05, 2008
Trademark vs. Service Mark Simply put, trademarks are for goods while service marks are for services. When discussing either, it is common to use the term "trademark", even when discussing a service use, because the handling of either is interchangeable by both the USPTO and all 50 Secretary of State Offices...

� vs. TMThe ? or SM symbol is to

Posted on March 05, 2008
� vs. TMThe ? or SM symbol is to be used for marks that either have a pending trademark applicationclaiming the rights to the mark. The � symbol is to be used for marks that have a Federally registered trademark. Trademarks can be names of products or services, logos, slogans, packaging and even sounds and smells...

Likelihood of Confusion: Sound

Posted on January 29, 2008
Likelihood of Confusion: Sound When filing for a Federal trademark, it's important to keep the SAM rule in mind. Who's SAM? SAM's not a person but a concept employed by the USPTO during their review process of new Federal trademark applications.The USPTO will refuse registration "if the marks are similar and the goods and or services related...

Likelihood of Confusion: The Rule

Posted on January 29, 2008
Likelihood of Confusion: The Rule of SAMWhen filing for a Federal trademark keep the SAM rule in mind.The USPTO will refuse registration "if the marks are similar and the goods and or services related." So basically marks do not need to be exact conflicts to be considered for refusal...

Likelihood of Confusion: Appearance

Posted on January 29, 2008
Likelihood of Confusion: Appearance When filing for a Federal trademark, it's important to keep the SAM rule in mind. Who's SAM? SAM's not a person but a concept employed by the USPTO during their review process of new Federal trademark applications...

Likelihood of Confusion: Meaning

Posted on January 29, 2008
Likelihood of Confusion: Meaning When filing for a Federal trademark, it's important to keep the SAM rule in mind. Who's SAM? SAM's not a person but a concept employed by the USPTO during their review process of new Federal trademark applications. The USPTO will refuse registration "if the marks are similar and the goods and or services related...

O Romeo, Romeo Picking up from

Posted on January 25, 2008
O Romeo, Romeo Picking up from yesterday's post, I thought it'd be a good idea to show how truly important comprehensive research is BEFORE filing for a trademark. On January 17th, Mr. Percy Miller filed an intent to use application for ROMEO for clothing...

When Applications Go WrongElaborating

Posted on January 25, 2008
When Applications Go WrongElaborating further from this post, let's take a look at an incorrectly filed application, which will show why correct application preparations are so advantageous to applicants.On January 17th, The TNG Group submitted an application for La Bella Belly Maternity...

What Happened at the USPTO on...Christmas?58

Posted on January 23, 2008
What Happened at the USPTO on...Christmas?58 new filings on XmasNew Year's Eve?562 -- seems folks were staying inand on New Year's Day?55 -- and were taking it easyThese 3 snapshots make a great point: trademarks don't take a day off. Even on holidays, folks out there are filing for trademarks...

Hear Ye, Hear Ye - Come One, Come

Posted on January 22, 2008
Hear Ye, Hear Ye - Come One, Come All! As a big THANK YOU to our blog readers, TradeMark Express is offering a never-ending, no limit, discount off of our package deal. Simply call any of our offices and when placing your order mention that you read the blog & we'll take $50 off of our package price...

What's the Point of Getting a Federal

Posted on January 16, 2008
What's the Point of Getting a Federal Trademark?After reading about Common-Law, you're probably wondering why you'd even be interested in getting a Federal Trademark for your name. Well, let's break down the key reasons as provided by the USPTO. 1) Constructive notice nationwide of the trademark owner's claimEssentially, this means that no other party will have the right to use the same or confusingly similar name throughout the US...

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