Trademark Guidance, from the attorneys of
Forsgren Fisher McCalmont DeMarea Tysver
The following guidance is provided for companies and individuals to protect their valuable trademarks and service marks. A trademark acts to identify goods or services as originating from a particular source. General information on trademarks can be found in the Trademark Law section of Bitlaw.
Guidance on Trademark Applications
These pages provide guidance on filing a federal trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark office. The trademark filing overview page gives a general summary of the guidance available in this section.
What is a trademark and when do you have one?
What is a "Common Law" trademark?
If you have rights without registration, why register?
Video explanation from the US Trademark Office
What is the cost of a trademark application?
What is the cost of a trademark search?
What costs are specific to intent-to-use applications?
What are the costs after your trademark is registered?
When should trademark applications be filed in general?
What is an Intent-to-Use application?
What is an Actual Use application?
What is a trademark search?
What is the cost of a trademark search?
Should you conduct a search?
Do you need an attorney?--Nope.
Why you should hire an attorney anyway
Video explanation from the US Trademark Office
The importance of fully listing goods and services
An Example--selecting your goods and services
The Example Continued--implications of the selection
What is an Office Action?
Common Types of Rejections in an Office Action
Great guidance coming soon
When is a mark confusingly similar to another?
Analyzing whether the rejection is appropriate
Arguments to make in responding to the rejection
What is it mean that a mark is merely descriptive?
What if the mark really is not descriptive?
What is secondary meaning?
Using the Supplemental Register
Legal Stuff
Of course we have to have some caveats and limitations here:
The legal information provided in Bitlaw Guidance should be distinguished from actual legal advice. Legal information is a description of the law and how it might apply to various hypothetical situations. Legal advice is advice given by a licensed attorney about how the law applies to your situation. Legal advice can be relied upon to make decisions. Legal information--even that found in Bitlaw Guidance--is not actual legal advice that should be relied upon. Since every fact situation is different, we encourage you to contact a qualified attorney before making any decision on how to handle your particular situation. Of course, the attorneys at Forsgren Fisher McCalmont DeMarea Tysver would be happy to help you.
So if you can live with that bit of hedging, we think you will find the various topics of Bitlaw Guidance to be of sufficient interest and informative value to help guide you along a path to making better and informed decisions about your intellectual property.