Trademark Registration:
The name of your business is one of its most important assets. Once you've done the hard work of choosing your name and making sure that it's available for your use, you'll want to protect it in every way you can. This means following local and state laws that govern when you must register a fictitious (or assumed) business name. It also means filing for trade mark protection at the state and federal level, if appropriate.

Protecting your trade mark basically consists of preventing others from using your mark in a context where it might confuse consumers, and recovering money from someone who uses your mark knowing it was protected. The laws favour businesses who first used the mark, and much of copyright law comes from the Lanham Act. The Lanham Act was designed to prevent trade mark infringement. The law broadly prohibits uses of trade marks, trade names, and trade dress that are likely to cause confusion about the source of a product or service. Infringement law protects consumers from being misled by the use of infringing marks, and also protects producers from unfair practices by an imitating competitor.

Even if you are not yet using a trade mark, you can reserve the right to use one by filing an intent-to-use trade mark registration application with the European Trade Mark Office before anyone else uses the mark. If a person uses the mark within six months to three years after the Trade Mark Office approves the trade mark, then the first use will be considered the day the application was filed.

Before you choose a particular trade mark for your goods or services, it is best to conduct a trade mark search to ensure that it is not already being used – this will ensure that you are not infringing someone else's trade mark, and reduce risks of a costly trade mark infringement lawsuit. If you use a protected trade mark, not only might you have to discontinue using the mark – and lose all the goodwill you have gained with it – but you could be liable for hefty lawsuit damages and attorneys' fees. You can conduct trade mark searches through Coddan. Our professionals will conduct, on your behalf, the trade mark search.

A patent is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the European Trade Mark Office. The term of a new patent is usually 10 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed with the European Trade Mark Office. The right of a patent is the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention in the EU. Basically, a patent gives the owner the right to a monopoly on the use and sale of the invention for a period of time.

For more information about Trademarks, please click here