If You Don't Register
The implications of not registering a trademark can be very costly and time-consuming. If you don't register and later find out that someone else has the same or similar name:
- You can be liable and be sued for infringement.
- You'll need to redo signs, stationary, advertising, websites.
- You'll confuse and lose customers if you have to change your name.
- You can lose the right to expand outside your original business area.
- If you infringe someone else's trademark, you can be ordered to stop using the name, give up profits earned; pay money damages, attorney's fees.
- Introduction
- What Trademarks Protect
- Definitions
- Governing Law
- Benefits of Trademark Registration
- If You Don't Register
- Acquiring Trademark Rights
- Use in Commerce
- Intent to Use
- Distinctiveness
- Selecting a Mark
- Logos or Words
- Trademark Search
- Trademark Symbols
- Using Trademarks Grammatically
- Electronic Filing
- The Drawing
- Specimens Of Use
- Post-Registration
- Registration Refusal
- Trademark Infringement
- Non-Infringing Use
