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Recommend Taking the Mystery out of Trademark Use (Email)

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Before a trademark can be registered, it has to be used.

There’s one exception to that — if a mark is registered in a foreign country, it can be registered in the States without having been used here. But even then, the registration eventually will cancelled if the owner does not prove the mark has been used.

So what constitutes use?

Trademarks are brands. They tell consumers where the branded good or service comes from. Trademark use, therefore, means the selling or distribution of goods or services to consumers that carry a brand. For goods, that means affixing the mark to the good itself or placing it on product packaging. Services are intangible, so it’s not possible for owners to physically affix a brand to the thing they’re selling. Use of a trademark for services (technically, a “service” mark) is the next best thing — display of the mark at the point of purchase, such as on a sign in a brick-and-mortar store, and on a website where the services are offered if the owner is a web-based company.


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