Important Facts About Trademarks

Important Facts About Trademarks

Before getting into the details, a necessary question is – What is a trademark? Picture a situation where you have manufactured a product. In what manner would you like outsiders and even competitors to have knowledge about the product and the design, both being yours? This can be done by getting a trademark of the product and the design. If this is not done, others have the full liberty to copy the design and make money out of something which you actually introduced. 

Basically a trademark is a symbol which is used by an organisation for products or designs which resulted from their idea. It gives the person so getting the trademark the right of ownership of the design or product. It is used for proper identification of their products by the outside world. The trademark can be registered at the United States Patents and Trademarks Office [USPTO]. For registered trademarks, the ® symbol can be used, else the ™ symbol can be adopted. 

Legal aspects about trademarks 
 
Notwithstanding whether the product is registered or not, you have full right for the product which is trademarked. This gives the party a right to initiate legal action against anybody who infringes the use of the trademark without obtaining the permission of the trademark holder. Called the “trademark infringement”, doing such a thing is illegal in the eyes of law. 

Role of trademark attorney 
A question arises about whom to approach if anybody infringes your trademark without obtaining permission as such? The answer lies with the trademark attorney. He is actually a lawyer, and deals with the various legal issues relating to trademarks. There are many specialist lawyers, like the ones dealing in crime are the criminal lawyers. In the same manner, all the lawyers who deal with cases of infringement and various other legal matters of trademark are called the trademark attorneys. 

In the United States of America, the trademark attorneys are not specially trained as such. Such a practice isn’t followed in the countries of Commonwealth like the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc. in these countries, trademark attorneys need to pass the written examination which gives them the qualification to practice as such attorneys.
Manner of applying for trademarks 
For application of a trademark, a form for it must be duly filled up. This form must clearly state the individual or the company’s name who is filing for such a trademark. Also, the form must contain the address for proper correspondence to the applier by the USPTO. Also, the product or the service on which the trademark is to be applied as also the fee for filing of the trademark must be clearly mentioned in the form thereto.

The application form can be obtained from the official website of the USPTO. Also, the application can be made online by TEAS [Trademark Electronic Application System] for filing of the trademark. The online form can be printed and submitted to the concerned organisation.

Trademark facts 
A fact about trademark is that one doesn’t need to be an American for application of trademark with USPTO. In case of non-citizenship of America, the place where you are a citizen needs to be mentioned. You can actually hold multiple citizenship as well.