If you are a business owner, entrepreneur or inventor and intend to launch a new product or service, establishing trademark rights should be a top priority. Our Chicago trademark lawyers find that Illinois businesses, start-ups, inventors and entrepreneurs often overlook the important trademark benefits afforded to properly registered trademarks.
Trademarks: Valuable Business Asset
A company’s brand is generally one of the most valuable assets of the business. Business names, symbols, phrases, logos, and other distinctive trademarks are often developed at great time and expense. Thus, trademarks are extremely valuable to entrepreneurs, inventors, start-ups, and small businesses that offer a unique product or service in the marketplace. These business names, symbols, phrases, logos, and other distinctive trademarks may function as a trademark so as long as the trademark is used in commerce to distinguish the product or service associated with that trademark from other businesses operating in the same marketplace. Trademark registrations with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) provide certain legal protections that would otherwise be unavailable at common law or even on the state level. Our Chicago attorneys can provide critical guidance to any entrepreneur or business in the process of launching a new product or service and ensure their trademarks are properly protected.
Trademarks: Brand Protection
A trademark represents a company’s identity, unique service, and business brand. As a result, a trademark can achieve enormous value and goodwill in the marketplace. Our Chicago trademark attorneys offer a broad range of trademark legal services to entrepreneurs and businesses in Illinois. For example, if a business or entrepreneur does not properly register their trademarks, a business or entrepreneur may come along seek to obtain a state or federal registration of the trademark and block both the expansion and use of the previous trademark owners trademarks and any later attempt to register those trademarks. If a business, often with the help of a trademark attorney, properly selects a trademark, conducts a comprehensive trademark search, identifies the appropriate trademark classification, and is successful in the trademark registration with the USPTO, the USPTO will automatically reject the application of the latecomer attempting to register the same or confusingly similar trademark, and the trademark rights of the business or entrepreneur most always be superior to the latecomer.
Trademark Search Services
The first and most important step for any business or entrepreneur in creating a business name, tagline or logo is to ensure it is available for use. Our law firm offers clients trademark search services which includes a comprehensive search report and attorney opinion analyzing all 50 state trademark databases and the federal database to determine whether there are any potential conflicts with the proposed trademark. The trademark search is a flat fee service based on two hours of attorney time and can be completed within three business days.
Our law firm uses Corsearch, the premier trademark search, trademark clearance and protection platform for trademark and brand solutions. Its high-quality, intuitive tools are unparalleled and enable our attorneys to effectively manage our clients trademark portfolios. Our law firm’s access to expansive global content through the Corsearch platform, empowers its customers our lawyers to easily, quickly and flexibly monitor and protect our clients brands in an increasingly complex business environment.
Trademark Registration Services
After a comprehensive trademark search is performed and the trademark(s) is selected, our trademark attorneys will determine the appropriate trademark classes in which to protect the trademark and will draft the trademark goods and/or services description. Once the trademark selected, the appropriate trademark class is determined, and the description of the goods and/or services is drafted, our lawyers will proceed to prosecute the state or federal trademark application. For Illinois trademarks, the trademark registration process will likely take a few weeks. For federal trademarks, the trademark registration generally takes 8-14 months, if there are issues arise during the prosecution.
Why Hire A Chicago Trademark Lawyer?
There are several major benefits to using a trademark lawyer to perform your trademark search and file your federal trademark application: 1) saving time, and 2) saving money; and 3) avoiding costly mistakes. The federal trademark search and registration process on the surface may seem fairly straightforward but more often than not it is complex, time consuming, and riddled with areas to potentially make significant, costly mistakes. The trademark registration process involves multiple steps, each with its own timeline and requirements:
- complete and file initial application,
- USPTO examining attorney evaluates the application,
- a potential non-final refusal, followed by a required response,
- a potential final refusal, followed by a required response or appeal,
- the publication of the trademark for an opposition period of 30 days,
- if the application is based on an intent to use, the subsequent filing of a statement of use or a time extension.
Contact Our Chicago Trademark Lawyers
If you have an Illinois state or federal trademark matter, please send us an email, fill out one of our trademark information forms, or give us a call at 312-789-5676.