IP Tech Knowledgy

Reconsider if it is now time to file for a federal trademark registration. In the early stages of your business, you may have determined that it was too expensive to pursue a trademark registration for your one location or your fledgling business. If your success has led to expansion into more regions, with plans for additional expansion, your cost-benefit analysis may have changed, and it could be time for stronger trademark protection.

Federal registration entitles you to rights throughout the country with a priority date as of the date you apply with the US Patent and Trademark Office. Although there are some nuances as to when the priority date becomes effective in various regions, federal trademark registration gives you priority in regions where you are not yet operating, but plan to continue expansion.  

A problem with not obtaining registration earlier is that if a business has started using a similar trademark in a distant region before you file, that other business may have priority in that region, even if you have been building your brand in your own territories. 

Your new application could still help persuade the distant user to change its name because your prior usage, and your additional new application, could convince the other party that it cannot expand with its own brand and it should change its name now, before investing too much more into a trademark whose scope will be limited by your application and registration.  

Ned T. Himmelrich
410-576-4171 • nhimmelrich@gfrlaw.com