Why You Should Trademark Your Business Logo

Designing a logo is the first part of an equation that should be immediately followed up with trademarking it. A logo is a mark that represents and identifies a product, a brand, a company or a service, and correctly protecting it under the trademark law shields this corporate identifier from incorrect or illegal use by others.

In the United Sates, trademark rights kick off when the trademark is first used commercially. But for this, an individual or a company must first register their logo as a trademark. Filing for a trademark, of course, carries a fee. Mind you, there are fees for proactive services, say applying for a trademark, but also for letters of protest, paper filing, extension of appeal time, even to delete certain goods and/or services from a trademark registration!

The United States Patent and Trademark Office or USPTO, as it is known in abbreviated form, is the regulatory board for anything and everything trademarks. The USPTO carried out a biennial fee review, which began in 2018, and found that Trademark and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) fees needed to be adjusted, for the first time in nearly three years. This Final Rule will be effective January 2, 2021.

The main fee changes will affect the following:

• Application and application-related
• Post registration
• Petitions to the Director and Letters of Protest
• Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB)
• Paper filing
• Request to delete goods, services, or classes from a registration

This Final Rule service fee increase should allow the USPTO governing body to better police, regulate and enhance the quality of trademark examination, achieving best examination times, modernizing trademark IT systems and infrastructure, and providing stability to USPTO operations.

For further information, you can contact the USPTO by email at TMPolicy@uspto.govn and access the source links below to understand the changes and consult the updated fees.

Sources:

https://tmmiami.com/
https://www.uspto.gov/trademark/laws-regulations/updated-trademark-ttab-fees-processes