How often do you trademark?

or should I trademark my brand domain?

[tomda]

Hi,

I have read lot of topics and websites about trademark. Very interesting, nonetheless it is stil uncleared if I should trademark my logo/DNS.

1/ I have a branded domain name which is not trademark yet.
2/ There are currently no other similar DNS (.net, .org, etc..) (same applied to the logo)
3/ I am confident that my website, once launched, will be ranked high as it has features that other sites on this subject do not have and will definitely be referenced by many other websites
4/ Website is correctly non commercial and personnal but long term goal is to provide services.

Is this enough to consider trademarking? What do you think?

Also, I would like to know if you need to be a registered company to trademark? Is the cost high?

Thanks

[Leosghost]

The answer to your last question is it depends entirely where you want to trademark..And that is crucial to all your other questions ..;)

[rogerd]

Tomda, assuming you are in the US, you can start adding a "TM" to your proposed trademark immediately. There's no cost or paperwork for this; it's just a notice that you consider your unique name to be a trademark.

You should also document your first commercial use of the trademark, as this will establish your priority to it.

If you want to register it, expect it to take about a year of waiting and involve a fee of about $350 plus legal costs. You will have to define the scope and usage of your trademark; identical marks are often used by firms in different industries, e.g., "Bufosil" could be used by a pharmaceutical firm for a drug and an electronics firm for a line of chips.

You can fill out the paperwork yourself, but it may pay you to hire an attorney who does this stuff every day and knows what the examiners expect. Intellectual property attorneys are expensive, but you can find some relatively inexpensive services on the web. I recently did one for under $800 total (including the fee); this covered the original filing and a followup revision when the examiner requested we tighten up one area of protected usage. Time from filing to award was about 15 months.

(Please not that I'm not a lawyer, and none of this is legal advice!)

[photocartoonist]

Yes good IP attorneys are expensive. The cost of a simple trademark is around $15,000 USD. I spend $4000 just doing the research and eventually abandoning the trademark because some else owned a similiar domain name.

Since trademarks can be overturned for technicalities, it would scare me to spend so little to protect something so valuable.

Be cautious. I use the mantra "don't be penny wise and dollar foolish".

[jdancing]

Some tips I learned from past experience:

Keep it simple; Trademark only your main word. For example, if you site name is "Widget Services" trademark the word "widget" not the phrase "widget services" - they'll never let you trademark a common word like services. Even if they do, it'll raise questions and slow the process down. What you do is assign your name Widget to the Goods and Services category when applying for the trademark.

Do a search on google for your name, if it comes up null chances are you are free and clear and your trademark process will be quite simple.

If you have a logo that says "widget" in a fancy font and you trademark it, you are trademarking the logo not the word "widget". I made the mistake of trademarking my logo not realizing that I left my actual company name unprotected, so I had to do a second trademark. Until you have the Nike swoosh, I'd worry about getting your company name trademarked first.

For my first few trademarks, I used my high-end law firm and it was $1,200 per trademark. Now, after seeing how simple the process really is, I do the trademarks myself for the $350 in government fees. All you really need to do is fill out the right forms and pick the right category, if there is a problem; the trademark office assigns a trademark attorney to you case to help you get things straightened out. You can even talk your assigned attorney on the phone and email.

[tomda]

Thanks for your reply and advice.

You all speaking about Good and Services categorie, but can I trademark a name which provides non services/goods. Should I be a register company to trademark or can I trademark as an individual?

[Kirby]

A good trademark attorney is worth a ton. I recently got on the principle register for my company name after first being turned down for being, "merely descriptive" - the kiss of death at the USPTO. Because the attorney anticipated the examining attorney's objections, knew how to modify his argument, and knew what documentation to present, and more importantly, when to present it, we were ultimately succesful.

I'm into this for a around $5,000US, but it was worth every dime. While you can apply on your own, I can only recommend hiring a good attorney if its truly worth trademarking. There is no way on earth I would have been successful with my mark on my own.