Trademark protection how long

If you continue doing business and selling the goods and services listed in your application, you will be required to file a Section 8 Declaration of Continued Use five years after your registration was granted. This filing is essentially a renewal of your registration. These trademark renewal deadlines can also be looked at from the perspective of an expiration date—while trademarks do not necessarily expire, they do require these renewal filings in order to maintain active registrations.

If a trademark owner fails to make a renewal filing in a timely manner, the registration will be at risk of abandonment. If this renewal filing is intentionally not submitted because the trademark is no longer in use, then the mark will abandon, or expire. The Principal register prevents other people from using or producing the trademark. It imposes legal implications on will infringers and they may have to compensate the owners.

Principal registry offers Federal protections. Circle-r provides proof of Federal registration. The TM and SM symbols are used to inform the public of a trademarked sign. The USPTO grants principal register members a certificate that protects their trademark rights for ten years. The renewal application grants registrants an additional decade of protection.

Trademarks registered before November 16, had a year grace period. All trademarks registered after this date have a year grace period. A trademark can be renewed an unlimited number of times. Businesses are given the right to register trademarks at the state level if the trademark is only used in that state. However, state registration does not offer the level of protection a federal trademark does. State registration does offer registrants legal protection against infringers.

The state provides a record of trademark registrants that is available to the public. Registrants that apply to the Principal Registry do not have to apply for registration at the state-level. The law also assumes that the public knows the trademark is federally registered. The major difference between federal and state trademark registration is usage.

If the trademark is used in interstate commerce nationally, internationally then it must be federally registered. If the trademark is only used in one state and the owner only does business in this state, then the trademark can be registered at the state level.

That proof takes the form of a sworn statement from the owner that the mark is still in use. The owner must file the declaration after the fifth anniversary of the USPTO's registration of the trademark but before the sixth anniversary.

For a fee, the owner can request a six-month grace period if the declaration is not filed prior to the sixth anniversary. On the tenth anniversary of registration, the owner has to provide actual proof that the trademark is in use. In addition to the declaration, like the trademark section 8 declaration, the owner must provide photographic evidence of a product, using the trademark, available for sale.

As part of the trademark renewal process, every 10 years thereafter, the owner will need to similarly provide proof of usage and a declaration—unless the trademark is to go abandoned. Understanding trademark maintenance requires understanding what a trademark is.

If you own a trademark, then you do not own a logo or a word or a brand. You own the right to exclude others from using that trademark on goods or services.

The trademark is how you tell your customers that your products come from you. To keep those rights enforceable, however, you have to keep using them. You have to make products, sell them, and include your trademark on them. If you fail to do any of those, then you no longer have a trademark to protect.

If you fail to do them long enough, you will lose your rights to use the trademark. To avoid losing those rights, mark the fifth and every year anniversary on your calendar. Make sure you can provide a section 8 declaration and that you have proof of usage of your trademark. Failing to do so can cause you to lose out on the trademark you sought to protect.

The biggest benefit of having a mark on the Principal Register is that anybody who infringes on the trademark becomes liable for large sums of money in damages. The Supplemental register does not grant the same rights and protections as the Principal Register. In fact, the Supplemental register does not even grant the owner exclusive right for use of the mark. The Supplemental Register also omits the ability to stop the importing of any goods that infringe on the trademark. Registration does provide an exact date, which helps to fight any infringement incidents that may have happened around the time of registration or soon after.

Five years, or 10 years with the filing of a Declaration of Continued Use. Although, registrations can be renewed as many times as the owner wants. However, even if the owner does not renew a registration, that does not void all rights for the mark.

The more you use your mark, the stronger the rights. Even without renewal, continued use of a specific phrase, design, or symbol by a specific manufacturer designates a trademark. Though the lack of renewal does cost the owner special benefits. This would be the route to take if a trademark shall only be used in one state because it would not qualify for federal registration. You do not need to state register if you already have federal registration. With a state registration, you will not get the same level of protection as a federal registration.

The main benefit of this registration is the ability for others to check and see that your trademark is already in use and owned by you.

Interstate commerce is required before applying for federal trademark registration. All this means is that the mark must be used either with a service or on a product that crosses state lines. This includes internet business. The following questions must all have a "no" answer:. Maintaining a federal trademark registration requires filing a maintenance document before the beginning of the sixth year of your registration.

The time period begins on the date of registration. This document is called a Declaration of Continued Use. By signing this, you are swearing that the mark is currently being used in commerce. If accepted, your registration will continue until 10 years after the registration date. It is possible to retain a trademark without using it.

You can do this by filing a Declaration of Excusable Non-Use. This must be done between five and six years after the registration date. It is a sworn statement, just like the Declaration of Continued Use. With it, you are declaring that the non-use is only temporary and out of your control. You also must lay out your method of fixing the situation in the declaration. Ten years from the registration date, one can file an application to renew the trademark. This document is called an Application for Renewal.

You can renew your trademark an unlimited number of times.