The purpose of having a trademark is to protect the intellectual property in your business – brands, names, logos, slogans, etc. Your brand is worth protecting, but the key to protection is that the brand must be unique enough How to Ensure Your Trademark is Unique Trademark law uses different classifications to determine the uniqueness […]
Descriptive and Generic Terms When applying for a trademark, the general rule of thumb is to stay away from generic and descriptive words, and phrases. Trademark law reserves certain words and phrases for the public domain, and does not let anyone have exclusive rights to use them because businesses that provide these goods and services […]
We’d like to share this trademarking example from recent news headlines. The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo started an Asian Lantern Festival in the summer of 2018 and has continued offering the event on an annual basis since 2018. The Pittsburgh Zoo is now also embarking on an Asian Lantern Festival of their own, beginning in August […]
We wanted to share these two trademark-related articles involving the restaurant industry. Although these examples involve restaurants, the importance of trademarking a name applies to all businesses. We hope you find them both interesting and that they don’t make you too hungry and ruin your lunch/dinner! City Barbeque and Ohio City BBQ City Barbeque is […]
A trademark is a “word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination of these things that identifies your goods or services.” For hundreds of years businesses, merchants, and craftsmen have used trademarks to identify the source of their goods and services. The Chinese used them on pottery as early as 2698 B.C. The ancient Romans put […]
As we discussed in our previous post, it can cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars to register a trademark. If you make a mistake on the application, it might be amendable, in which case you are lucky and it will only waste time. However, if it is an unamendable mistake, it will not only […]
It can cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars to register a trademark. If you make a mistake on the application, it might be amendable, in which case you are lucky and it will only waste time. However, if it is an unamendable mistake, it will not only cost you time but also money because […]
