What is a trademark?
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination of those elements that identifies your goods or services and sets them apart from others in the marketplace. Trademarks can be registered with the Intellectual Property Office of your respective country or region to provide stronger legal protections for your brand. It is important to remember that trademarks can only protect the specific goods or services associated with them and that creative, unique trademarks are more effective and easier to protect. Additionally, trademark symbols such as TM, SM, and ® can be used to indicate that a word, phrase, or symbol is being claimed as a trademark.
A trademark serves to identify the source of your goods or services and offers legal protection for your brand. It also helps you prevent counterfeiting and fraud. However, it's important to understand that having a trademark doesn't mean you have exclusive ownership over a particular word or phrase, but only over how it's used with your specific goods or services. It's a common mistake to believe that using a trademark means you can stop others from using a similar logo for unrelated goods or services. Also, choosing a descriptive trademark isn't effective in the long run. It's better to use creative and unique trademarks that are easier to protect.
Owning a trademark vs. having a registered trademark
When you start using a trademark for your goods or services, you automatically become a trademark owner. However, your rights are limited to the geographic area where you use it. To have stronger nationwide rights, you must register your trademark. While it's not mandatory to do so, registering your trademark provides more extensive protection than an unregistered one.
For instance, suppose you use a logo as a trademark for the handmade jewelry you sell at a local farmer's market. In the future, as your business expands online, you may want to apply for federal registration to have more protection for your trademark. Registering your trademark will establish nationwide rights for your trademark.
Using the trademark symbols TM, SM, and ®
When you use your trademark, you can include a symbol to indicate that you claim it as yours. For goods, you can use "TM," and for services, you can use "SM," even if you haven't applied to register your trademark.
After registering your trademark with us, you can use the ® symbol with the trademark. You can place the registration symbol anywhere near the trademark, but most trademark owners use it as a superscript or subscript to the right of the trademark. However, you can only use the registration symbol for the goods or services listed in the federal trademark registration.
