Tips for clearing your brands name/Trademark

Here’s another tip for starting your business. DO NOT take this as legal advice. At some point contact a lawyer specializing in Trademarks.

Do a cursory search

Simply head over to USPTO.gov and simply type in your company name and see what comes up.

What we’re talking about here is the name or trademark that you use to market your company, not necessarily the name of the company. Here is a link to an article from Entrepreneur.com discussing this in more detail.

This is not the end of the road if you do not find your trademark/name. There are many reasons why a trademark may not show up in this list, one being it is very new and still in the processes of getting approved.

Hire a specialist

Another reason they may not be listed is that under U.S. law, you can get certain trademark protections simply by using a trademark and not having it challenged for a certain number of years.

How long? Well, that’s why you need the specialist who does trademark searches. There are lawyers who do this as well as companies.

It’s clean, now what?

Now is when you need to protect your trademark/name. Register your “mark” as their called at the USTPO at the link above and as soon as you do, you can start using the ^TM symbol and if you get approved you can then use the ® symbol.

So, do you have any tips to add? Let us know in the comments.

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