bake - August 2012 - 10

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Make Your Mark
Have you considered trademarking your business ss name or a new product? Here are a few tips to consider from the US Patent and Trademark Office. What is a trademark or service mark? A trademark is generally a word, phrase, symbol, or design — or a combination thereof — that identiﬁes and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identiﬁes and distinguishes the source of a service rather than goods. Do trademarks, copyrights and patents protect ct t the same things? No. A trademark typically protects brand names and s d logos used on goods and services. A copyright protects cts an original artistic or literary work. A patent protects a te s tects an invention. For example, if you invent an innovative p ve piece of equipment, you would apply for a patent to protect th invente t tect the nve tion itself. You would apply to register a trademark to pro protect ark the brand name. And you might register a copyright for the TV commercial that you use to market the product. How do domain names, business name registrations and trademarks differ? A domain name is part of a web address that links to the IP address of a particular website. For example, in the web address “www.uspto.gov,” the domain name is “uspto.gov.” You register your domain name with an accredited domain name registrar, not through the USPTO. A domain name and a trademark differ. A trademark identiﬁes goods or services as being from a particular source. Use of a domain name only as part of a web address does not qualify as source-indicating trademark use, though other prominent use apart from the web address may qualify as trademark use. Registration of a domain name with a domain name registrar does not give you any trademark rights. For example, even if you register a certain domain name with a domain name registrar, you could later be required to surrender it if it infringes someone else’s trademark rights.
Source: Protecting your trademark, US Patent and Trademark Office For copyright information, go to www.copyright.gov. For patent information, go to www.uspto.gov/patents.

Similarly, use of a business name does not necessarily qualify as trademark use, though other use of a business name as the source of goods or services may qualify it as both a business name and a trademark. Many states and local jurisdictions register business names, either as part of obtaining a certiﬁcate to do business or as an assumed name ﬁling. For example, in a state where you will be doing business, you might ﬁle documents to form a business entity, such as a corporation or LLC, and select your business name. If no other company has already applied for that exact name in that state and you comply with all other requirements, the state likely would issue you a certiﬁcate and authorize you to do business under that name. However, a state’s authorization to form a business with a particular name does not also give you trademark rights, and other parties could later try to prevent your use of the business name if they believe a likelihood of confusion exists with their trademarks.

10 < AUG 2012 | bakemag.com

http://www.uspto.gov http://www.uspto.gov http://www.copyright.gov http://www.uspto.gov/patents http://www.bakemag.com

bake - August 2012

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