A common law trademark ensures that new and small businesses can operate in their geographic area without fear of competitors stealing their brand name or logo. However, once your business has gained traction, you should consider registering your trademark with the USPTO to benefit from the additional protections. A Southern California company with a federal trademark registration can use its federal trademark rights to prevent a new company from using the trademark for similar goods or services in San Francisco, New York, or elsewhere in the country. When a formal legal dispute is initiated, the federal registration provides the trademark owner with a judicial hook to judge their trademark and related claims in federal court rather than in state court. A federal court provides a plaintiff from a trademark owner with procedural and other benefits that are not available in a state court. An applicant who owns a nationally registered trademark also has additional remedies compared to an applicant who only owns trademark rights under the common law. These remedies may include financial damages such as recovery of the infringer`s earnings, legal damages, and punitive damages. Common law trademark rights offer limited regional protection to one`s own business. Investing in your brand by strengthening common law rights with a federal registration can make your trademark an even more valuable asset to the business. You acquire common law trademark rights by using your trademark in your business. You can strengthen these rights by registering your trademarks with the United States. Register a Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). A common law trademark is a type of protection against intellectual property infringement in which property is used in commerce before being registered at the federal level.
The American trademark The Common Law begins when you first use the trademark in commerce in a geographic area. It lasts with continuous and conscious use and is indicated by the symbol by superscript “TM”. Brand symbols can mean many things, but one of their most important functions is to let others know that your name or logo is protected. Each of the main symbols tells the others that you are asserting trademark rights. This makes it harder for someone to claim ignorance later after committing a trademark infringement. We have written a full article on the benefits of federal trademark registration, which you can read here. Although trademark rights under the common law are easier to obtain than state-registered rights, an owner`s trademark rights in an unregistered trademark extend only to the geographic areas where the mark is actually used and to other places where the owner`s use of the mark would naturally extend. In contrast, a trademark often offers national protection in the United States and is not limited to the geographic areas where the trademark is used. To declare your ownership of a common law trademark, you must add an exhibitor “TM”. Once you start looking for TM, you`ll likely notice many examples of common law trademarks with this icon.
A common law trademark allows you to use your trademark within the territorial framework of your business. However, keep in mind that you can`t use it all over the country. If you want your trademark to be enforceable anywhere in the United States, you will need a USPTO federal trademark registration. Trade names, slogans, product names, logos, design elements and sounds used to identify businesses are all covered by a common law trademark. U.S. trademark law differs from international trademark law in that it is based on the common law rather than the right of the first applicant. It is your responsibility to enforce your trademark rights under the common law. If you don`t, you could lose your right to protection. For example, if you do not file an opposition within five years against a patent trademark application that infringes your common law trademark, your common law trademark can be revoked. It is in the nature of things that a search for common law trademarks must be extensive and probably time-consuming, because there is no central database for common law marks as there is for trademarks registered with the federal or state government. Therefore, an effective common law trademark search must cover a variety of sources, including the Internet, public records, and newspapers, as well as the search for trademarks in the USPTO`s trademark database.
Because there are no public records of your trademark or usage history, it can be difficult to prove your case in court. A trademark attorney can help you with this. If you lose the infringement lawsuit, you will also lose your common law trademark. You must continue to use your trademark in retail. If you do not use the common law or a registered trademark for commercial purposes within three years, your trademark will expire. You must take control of the nature and quality of your goods and services. If you don`t, it will be said that you have a bare license that could put your brand at risk. Trademarks are words, phrases, symbols, or sounds that you use to identify your business. Famous trademarks include everything from McDonald`s golden arches to Nike`s “Just Do It” slogan to the company`s name Amazon.com. Brands are an important tool to prevent other businesses from using similar brands that might confuse your customers. If you choose to register your trademark with the USPTO, you will have additional protections and rights, including the following: To protect your name under the common law, you must prove that you are using it as a trademark and that it has received a second unique meaning.
Essentially, your name should be recognizable to the public as your brand name, not your personal name. In general, common law trademark rights offer much less protection to owners than to owners of federal registrations. The biggest difference in the field of the use of symbols is in the field of registration. To use the nationally ® registered “R” symbol, your trademark must be nationally registered. The mere use of a mark is likely to transfer trademark rights under the common law. However, if you don`t register your trademark, you`re bypassing a plethora of benefits. For more information, please visit our Trademark Registration page. No, you do not need to register a trademark to benefit from common law trademark protection. However, a federally registered trademark offers additional protection, so you should carefully consider the differences between registered and unregistered trademarks before deciding on either.
Next, you need to prove that you have already used the name, logo, symbol, etc. as part of your business in Florida.