Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

Re: Trademarks

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Re: Trademarks

There is an on-line application process available via www.uspto.gov (the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office web site). An application for a single mark covering a single category of goods costs (I think) $325, which can be paid by credit card.

If there are no problems, it takes about one year from application to grant of the trademark; longer if there are issues with your proposed mark.

The web site is not very intuitive, and there are a lot of rules and procedures to study on line before you want to start filing in any blanks on the application. Among other things, you will need to know the category of your goods or services and will need to decide whether your right to a trademark is based upon use in interstate commerce or intent to use in the future.

Just because a phrase is unique doesn't assure it tradmark-ability. If a phrase is just three or four common words strung together to make a unique slogan, that might not be enough. Also, an examiner is likely to contact you later on to have you amend your application to disclaim certain common words, to provide translations into English of foreign words, or things of this type.

A trademark can be based on plain text words, in which case the distinctiveness of the words is the important criterion of trademark-ability; or it may also include aspects of type style, size, color, arrangement, etc., in which case its appearance will also be a factor in determining whether it is distinctive enough to be trademarked.

Be sure to search the USPTO site to see if there are similar marks already in use.

Re: Trademarks

In re-reading your question, I see another difficulty you might have, so I thought I should supplement my prior answer.

You seem to be trying to protect a clever phrase in itself, but trademark protection is designed and given out to protect the identity of particular goods or services. For example, "Ford" identifies motor vehicles, but someone could probably use "Ford" on tissues or beefsteaks or children's garments without infringing (so long as they avoided use of the blue oval and script name). Your problem would be that t-shirts and coffee mugs fall into different international categories (find the list on the uspto web site) and thus would require separate trademarks with separate proof of use in commerce and an additional $325 fee. You can include additional categories of goods and services in one application, but it doesn't reduce the cost. Someone could use your slogan on any category of goods or services for which you didn't register it, with only a mild chance of infringing your rights with respect to mugs and shirts. You see, it is the association of the mark with the type of goods that is protected, not the words themselves.

Re: Trademarks

This would be considered a slogan. Yes, you should trademark it. The easiest way is to create proper prototypes of the products you want to sell and submit an application (or have your attorney submit the application). There are some details and strategies associated with those steps but essentially that is it.