At the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, all products and services are divided into 45 “classes.”  For example, most clothing falls into Class 25.  One of the biggest classes covering a wide range of services is trademark Class 42.  Trademark classes are administrative, and do not affect your trademark rights.  However, you will need to … Read more

Filing a trademark application with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office requires you to choose a “filing basis” for your application.  You must have a valid filing basis for registration of your trademark.  Most of these filing bases have very strict requirements.  However, the “intent to use” basis only requires that you have a bona … Read more

Trademarks do not all receive the same level of protection.  It is not a binary system where something either receives trademark protection or not.  Instead, the scope of protection a trademark receives is based on its distinctiveness.  There is a spectrum of trademark distinctiveness where each trademark falls.  A more distinctive trademark is stronger and … Read more

One frequent question I get is whether you have to have a business entity formed in order to file a trademark application.  This is an important decision that you will need to make.  You will also need to correctly identify the trademark owner if you file a trademark application with the U.S. Patent & Trademark … Read more