There are 34 classes for goods and 11 for services, which leaves much room for error.įor instance, if you want to sell t-shirts and mugs that feature your mark, you should apply for registration in two separate categories-'Clothing' for t-shirts and 'Household Utensils' for mugs. You must also be sure to apply for trademark registration within the appropriate class or classes of goods to make sure your mark receives the protection you desire. That said, an important part of the trademarking process is making sure that your mark or symbol hasn't already been registered and isn't too similar to an existing mark, which may require an extensive search through currently registered marks. If your proposed symbol or mark is inherently unique and the class of goods or services you are registering for is clear, for example, there may not be a need to hire a trademark attorney. In some cases, registering a trademark is straightforward and doing it by yourself probably wouldn't raise any issues. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) provides a trademark application and instructions to walk applicants through the process on its website. Whether or not you should hire a trademark attorney to help you depends on several factors, discussed more fully below. Simply put, your trademark is integral to your brand, so it's important that you take the right steps to protect it as soon as possible. With a registered trademark, you receive exclusive rights to use your trademark in commerce throughout the United States. That is, when your customers see your mark on your product or service, they know exactly what they're getting and from whom, and this builds customer confidence and loyalty. Registering a trademark for the words or symbols that identify your business assures consumers of the source of the goods or services. If you're wondering whether you even need a trademark at all, the answer is almost always yes. Hiring a lawyer for the trademark registration process certainly isn't a requirement, but it can ensure that you receive the protection you deserve without wasting additional time or money. Like 50% of her content is about this question exactly.Registering a trademark can provide you and your business invaluable legal protection from others attempting to infringe on your intellectual property rights. The podcast 'The Legalpreneur' is done by a trademark lawyer. Location Specific Small Business Subreddit No Personal Attacks, Trolling, or Toxicity.You can promote your business in a relevant reply to a post or comment in other threads. Offers of free services under the pretense of 'building your portfolio' are considered business promotion, and not permitted in posts. Promote your business in the weekly Promote-your-business thread only. Practically all content, small business-related or not.Īllowed are links or quotes in comments and replies that are relevant to and come normally in the course of discussions. Note: You can post own experiences in the new weekly stickied or pinned share-your-experience thread.īlogspam has been defined very early in r/smallbusiness as content that maybe text articles, images, or video. NO business promotion, lead generation, rants, info-tainment, success stories or unsolicited instructional texts, treatise, or how-to's are permitted in posts. You ask a question about starting, owning, and growing a small business and the community answers. R/smallbusiness is a question and answer subreddit. Post only questions about small business.

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Do you need to trademark a logo