All You Need to Know About Registering Your Trademark

Any glance at recent current events will confirm that people have become more litigious than ever, especially over matters of intellectual property. As a result, it has become increasingly necessary to retain the best professional help available to secure a legal trademark for one's brand or patent. Although individuals and businesses can register trademarks on their own, there are numerous legal issues that can arise if one does not fill out trademark applications and follow the legal protocol correctly. Most importantly, it is very easy to infringe on the intellectual property of another trademark holder, which could result in hours of wasted time, exorbitant legal fees, and potential loss of the mark itself.

Experienced trademark lawyers can navigate businesses through the complicated details of trademark registration while helping to avoid the pitfalls of copyright infringement. Trademark registration employs very specific guidelines, and without a qualified professional to steer one through the hidden and unknown intricacies of copyright law, it is almost inevitable that mistakes will occur to nullify all of the hard work that has already been expended on product branding.

For example, many people do not know that trademark infringement does not necessarily mean that a new mark needs to be identical to an existing copyrighted item, but only that it can, somehow, cause a "likelihood of confusion" in a consumer's mind. The boundaries surrounding the public's "likelihood of confusion" range from the strength or similarity of the mark waiting to be patented, to evidence of actual confusion in the public's mind. In addition, there are a number of other legal conditions that a judge will take into account while reviewing a copyright infringement lawsuit. Essentially, if it can be proven by the original trademark holder that a new trademark applicant, using a similar mark, willfully and intentionally attempted to deceive consumers into believing that their product is associated with somebody else's brand, legal action can ensue.

Trademark attorneys are trained to conduct extensive national and international searches for currently existing marks that may be the same or similar to a business one wishes to patent for itself. In addition, a knowledgeable trademark and copyright attorney will also search for unregistered trademarks that may prevent a business from being able to follow through on its designs or plans. Copyright law is so intricate that considerations are not only made on where a trademarked name or image is used, but also how it is being used.

With the millions of trademarks, patents, and copyrights that already exist in the world, it could prove impractical, if not impossible, to attempt to tackle the world of trademark registration alone. Only a highly skilled trademark and patent attorney is qualified to negotiate the labyrinthine passages of trademark registration, and then to best advise a business on which course of action will be most prosperous and effective.

George N Anderson is a freelance writer, blogger, and entrepreneur. He loves reading, traveling, keeping up with the latest technologies, and sharing useful sites like Omni Trademark that offers help with trademark registration, search, licensing and enforcement.