You’re here because you’re wondering how to get through the process of registering a trademark.

Cool. Welcome aboard.

Let’s start with a simple understanding. If you have even the slightest suspicion that you want to go through the process of registering a trademark, you need to hire and get legal advice from a trademark lawyer. That is a lawyer who specializes in the process of registering trademarks. This blog is not legal advice. I am not your lawyer. I am not providing you with any legal advice, representation, or counsel. You and I have no attorney-client relationship. The purpose of this blog is to introduce you to the vocabulary that you will need when you got to an attorney and ask him to help you with the process of registering a trademark.

You’re probably reading this because you just had some great idea for a business name and you want to protect it by registering a trademark. That’s great. I am going to give you some ideas about things that your lawyer will think about when you go talk to him about how to go through the process of registering a trademark. I am also going to indulge in some oversimplifications to help you understand the basics of how the process of registering a trademark works. Your attorney will give you more complex and technically correct answers when you hire him to help you with the process of registering a trademark.

So, now that we understand each other, let’s talk about how to register a trademark.

The first thing that a lawyer will usually explain to you is the set of guidelines for registering a trademark. Here are the most important guidelines:

1. In order to register a trademark, the trademark is easier to register if it is inherently distinctive or has acquired secondary meaning from use in commerce.
2. In order to register a trademark, the trademark is easier to register if nobody else is using or has registered a confusingly similar trademark.

Now, those guidelines are an oversimplification. But they lead you to some ideas on what is and is not eligible for registration. If you have an idea that doesn’t meet those guidelines, you should still discuss the idea with a trademark lawyer, because it may be worth registering, even if it is more difficult. It takes a trademark lawyer your trademark and tell you whether your trademark will meet those guidelines. Talk to a lawyer. We’ll talk shortly about how to find one.

Here are links to some items that we’ll cover.

1. The benefits of registering a trademark
2. Why you should pay a lawyer for registering a trademark
3. How to select a lawyer for registering a trademark
4. What trademarks are and how they work
5. How trademarks are different from patents and copyrights
6. What to do with a trademark after registration
7. Why dates and deadlines are important in trademarks