How Attorneys Can Spot Trademark Issues for Their Clients

How can attorneys spot trademark issues for their clients?

One of the most common problems our firm sees is established companies that have not registered their name, slogan, logo, or products and services with the USPTO.

If you’re representing a client in any capacity, you can do a quick check to see if they have already registered their trademarks. If they haven’t protected their trademarks yet, you can hopefully add value by suggesting that they do.

To determine if your client has filed trademarks:

1. Go to the USPTO’s public search tool: https://bit.ly/3qGheE1
2. Select the Basic Word Mark Search option
3. Type in your client’s business name or product/service names
4. Try searching by the owner name to narrow your results.

If you do not see any results from your search, it’s a good indicator that your client has not registered trademarks with the USPTO. At that point, ask your client if it is something they would like to consider.

Registering a trademark is great preventative medicine for clients. Having registration can protect companies from infringement and it also provides support if action needs to be taken in an infringement case. However, a trademark takes about 8-10 months to register, so it’s important to start the process as soon as possible.

Our firm works exclusively on intellectual property matters. If you have any questions about the trademark registration process, copyrights, or patents, feel free to reach out to us.