Trademark Applications

A trademark (or trade mark in Canada) is a distinctive indicator used by an individual, services provider, government, or other organization or legal entity to identify their products, services, or presence to consumers in commerce, and to distinguish its products or services from those of other entities.

A trademark is designated by the following symbols:

• for marks not registered before the USPTO used to market products in commerce, including common law trademark holders
• for an unregistered service mark, that is, a mark used to promote or brand services
• for a registered trademark or service mark

* A word mark is type of trademark that protects a distinctiveness and novelty inherent in a word or phrase itself, such as GOOGLE™ or MICROSOFT™. A wordmark cannot be generic or non-distinctive, such as Mall or Sports unless it has acquired distinctiveness and secondary meaning (like the mark AMAZON®).

* A service mark is associated with a service and usually used in advertising rather than affixed to a product.

* Trade dress is any inherently distinctive appearance of a product or its packaging, so long as it is nonfunctional. It does not need to be registered and may include smells or certain types of sound.

* A composite mark is a hybrid mark that combines elements of a wordmark and a design mark.

* A design mark typically comprises a logo, symbol, design or image and is affixed to products.

Trademarks are a type of intellectual property (IP) and typically a name, word, phrase, logo, design, image, or a combination of these elements. There are also non-conventional trademarks comprising marks which do not fall into these standard categories, including smells and sounds.

The owner of a registered trademark may commence a trademark infringement lawsuit to prevent unauthorized use of that trademark. The owner of a common law trademark may also file suit, but an unregistered mark (or common law mark) may be protectable only within the geographical area within which it has been used or in geographical areas into which it may be reasonably expected to expand.

The term trademark is also used informally to refer to any distinguishing attribute by which an individual is readily identified, such as the well-known characteristics of celebrities. When a trademark is used in relation to services rather than products, it may sometimes be called a service mark, particularly in the United States of America.

A copyright gives the creator of an original work of authorship the exclusive rights to reproduce the work and to be credited for creating it so long as it exists in a tangible medium, such as on paper, film, or disk. We can file a copyright registration for you with the U.S. Copyright Office.  A trademark is a brand identifier which identifies, or is used, in connection with a commercial offering of a product or service.

We may be able to help you with various forms of litigation, including Internet domain name disputes, patent infringement defense and prosecution, and various types of trademark litigation. Please see our litigation subpage for more information.

A copyright gives the creator of an original work of authorship the exclusive rights to reproduce the work and to be credited for creating it so long as it exists in a tangible medium, such as on paper, film, or disk. We can file a copyright registration for you with the U.S. Copyright Office. 

Itemized Trademark Related Legal Services: