The official defenition of a trademark by the United States Patent and Trademark Office is:
Quote:
A trademark includes any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination, used, or intended to be used, in commerce to identify and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller from goods manufactured or sold by others, and to indicate the source of the goods. In short, a trademark is a brand name.
There are several steps in obtaining a federal trademark registration. Once the Patent and Trademark Office receives your application, it reviews the information to determine if all the requirements are met. After about two months, you should receive a serial number and a receipt for your filing fee. Applications that don't meet the requirements are returned, including the fee. Approximately two months later, an attorney at the office will review your application . If the attorney finds any objections to your application, you'll be notified of the refusal at this time. You might also be asked to make corrections to your application. Minor corrections are often settled with a phone call. Once the attorney decides that your application is correct, the Patent and Trademark Office will send you a Notice of Publication indicating when your proposed trademark will be published in its weekly journal, the Official Gazette. After publication, any other parties who have objections to your mark have 30 days to file an opposition. If you've already used your mark on your product or business, and your mark hasn't generated any oppositions, you should receive your registration certificate about 12 weeks after publication in the Gazette. If, instead, your application was based on the intent to use the trademark, you'll get what's called a Notice of Allowance. This gives you six months in which to either use the mark in commerce or file for an extension. These are minimum time frames. In practice, it could take as much as several years to complete the registration process.
today i received a letter saying:
The mark of the application identited appears to be entitled to registration. the mark will, in accordance with Section 12(a) of the trademark acto fo 1946, as amended, be publised in the offical gazette on the date indicated above for the purpose of opposition by any person who believes he will be damaged by the registration of the mark. If no opposition is filed within the time specified by Section 13(a) of the status or by rules 2.101 or 2.102 of the trademark rules, the commissioner of patents and trademarks may issue a certificate of registration.
Copies of the trademark portion of the offical gazetter containing the publication of the mark may be obtained from:
the superinteneden of documents
US Government Printing Office
PO BOx 371954
Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954
Phone: 202-512-1800
By direction fo the commisioner.
my only question now is how long do i have to wait til i get my certificate if no one has opposition to my mark. I think its 30 days, but who knows..
I've been dealing with this for two years already. its been a learning expirience. we'll see what happens, i'll update this post as soon as i get more information whether my mark was opposed by someon or i get my certificate.
