Trademarks

People and companies take their trademarks very seriously.  In fact, they take them personally.  You need an experienced attorney who will not be afraid to tell you if that hot new trademark idea that you can’t wait to try is simply not worth the risk.

Before you adopt a new trademark, a new business name, or a new domain name, please allow Brown Patent Law to perform a trademark availability search. Even if no one else is using an identical mark, that does not guarantee that there is no conflict.  The test for trademark infringement is whether your mark is sufficiently close to a prior mark in terms of appearance, sound, connotation, products or services, customers, and channels of trade that there is a reasonable likelihood that the public will be confused.  Just how close is too close also depends on other factors such as the strength or weakness of the prior mark.

Also, even if you have already been using a trademark for a number of years, filing a trademark application without first doing an availability search may result in an unwelcome surprise.  Another party may already have a conflicting registration or may simply have been using the conflicting mark since prior to the time that your use began.  In such cases, in addition to receiving a rejection from the US Trademark Office, you may also receive a cease and desist letter demanding that you stop using your mark and that you send the prior owner a portion of your profits.

Trademarks are a valuable repository for all of the goodwill that you will build in your business.  Consequently, it is well worth the cost to allow Brown Patent Law to perform a very reasonably priced availability search and to ensure that your trademark application is properly filed.  Our search not only covers all prior federal registrations and applications, but also includes searches of existing domain names, and common law uses of other marks and business names that have not been registered.