TRADEMARK AND COPYRIGHT SERVICES

The Difference Between Trademarks And Copyrights

A trademark is a representation of your specific brand, product or service and are commonly used on products, product packaging, in company names, on brand logos and even within slogans. Whereas on the other hand, copyrights protect original works of authorship, including sound recordings, written musical scores, books, computer code, drawings, and other individual or group related creations. It’s important to know what type of intellectual property (“IP”) you poses, and an our Dallas IP Lawyers can help you obtain federal trademark and/or copyright registration. 

What Is A Trademark?

A trademark is a property right utilized by businesses all across America to signify a specific brand or service in the marketplace. As stated above the majority of trademarks are names, logos, and slogans but its possible to register other unique aspects as trademarks, such as sounds, color patterns, and other specific aspects of a business and even certification marks.  The initial challenge when creating a business trademark or slogan is picking and choosing what aspects are to be deemed federally protectable or, in other words, what part of your brand will become a trademark. If your goal is to have your product or service stand out in the crowd, a correctly chosen trademark will do that. Trademarks also provide significant protection over infringers and those who want to profit off your brand’s good will and reputation. Businesses tend trademark those aspects of their business brands which are best suited to cultivating consumer loyalty. 

How Do I Register A Trademark?

Filed trademarks provide additional legal protections; however, your first use of a trademark at common law does provide some limited legal protection even before you file a trademark. Unfortunately, those limited legal rights will not protect you against similar marks which have already entered the marketplace before you or even future marks which register with the trademark office. Without a federal trademark registration, your trademark may only be legally protected within a small region where your business is located, or mark is being used. To gain full protection and nationwide recognition, you much register your mark as a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Our trademark attorneys can assist you in performing a comprehensive trademark search prior to your filing of a trademark. 

After you’ve performed a comprehensive search to minimize any possible conflicting third party marks, it is best to promptly submit your trademark application to the USPTO. The date that you file your application becomes what is known as your “priority date,” meaning anyone wanting to file a similar mark after the date is likely to get rejected by the USPTO. Subject to certain rules for contesting filed marks, the trademark office generally acts as a first come first service business with respect to trademarks. Once approved, you will need to maintain your trademark by paying period renewals fees to the trademark office.   For more information on registering your trademark, please see our Trademark Registration web-page.

Registering Trademarks Or Copyrights

Federal registration is a crucial part to ensuring the safety and security of your intellectual property. Whether that’s via trademarking the name of your product, or copyrighting some of your original works of authorship, our trademark and copyright attorneys can help you protect the good will of your trademarked brand or the hard work of your copyrightable labor.