Seattle Trademark Lawyer

One of the main benefits of federal trademark registration is national coverage.

Once your registration issues, you are presumed to be the exclusive, nationwide, user of your trademark in connection with the goods and services listed on your registration. By illustration, this gives a Seattle owner the right to sue someone in Miami who adopted a confusingly similar mark after the date the Seattle owner applied to register its mark.

That’s right — the rights that flow from a trademark registration relate back to the date a trademark owner files its application for federal registration. That’s the day the world is legally put on notice that the registrant sought to claim national rights in its mark.

Here’s how conflicting trademark rights commonly sort out.

If you sell branded product in Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland, you have automatic common law rights in Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland. That means you can go after copycats in those markets who adopt a name that would likely confuse consumers into believing they are you, are authorized by you, or have some association with you.

But what about the rest of the country? Let’s say the brand owner is called ABC123, and it operates restaurants under that name in Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland. Can it do anything about a new restaurant that opens in San Francisco that is also called ABC123 (or a confusingly similar variant, like ABC124)?

Not without a federal trademark registration. Without obtaining national rights that a registration provides, the restaurant owner probably wouldn’t have any trademark rights in San Francisco available to enforce. In other words, without regularly making sales there, the brand owner probably wouldn’t have any legal basis to complain. That’s why a federal registration is valuable — it gives the trademark owner the legal basis to complain about any conflicting trademark use, anywhere in the United States.

What if there’s another restaurant called ABC123 in Miami that was open at the time the owner of the Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland restaurants applied to register its mark? As long as a registration issues, the Miami owner would locked into the geographic area in which it had been making sales (in this case, Miami) that existed at the time the owner of the Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland restaurants filed its application. This means the Miami owner would have superior trademark rights in Miami, and the Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland owner would have superior rights everywhere else. In this way, a registration whitewashes the map of the United States, giving the registrant superior trademark rights everywhere except for the local areas in which competing users had rights at the time the registrant filed its application.

This usually is the most valuable right a federal trademark registration provides. It can give the brand owner a powerful advantage over its competitors.

Once in a while, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will issue a suspension letter to a trademark owner that has applied for federal registration.

This usually isn’t a good thing. But it’s not necessarily a bad thing, either.

All the PTO does with a suspension letter is preserve the applicants’ respective places in line. Because while the first to use a trademark generally gets better trademark rights than later users, the PTO reviews each application in the order in which they are filed.

So if I apply to register BRAND X in connection with shoes, and you apply to register BRAND X in connection with socks, the PTO might properly issue a suspension letter to you. Its doing so would simply be telling you that it needs to see if my application is going to mature into a registration. If it does, it might very well block yours on grounds of likelihood of confusion. But if I abandon my application, or for some reason it is denied, it need not stand in your way.

This first-first in, first-reviewed scheme suggests two strategies. First, when searching the PTO’s database, you need to pay attention not only to prior registrations that could block your application, but also prior-filed applications.

Second, if you’re going to file, don’t delay. Preserve your place in line by getting your application on file. If you sit on the sidelines, you risk someone getting their application in the pipeline ahead of you. And if their application is registered, it may block yours. So don’t delay!

New clients often ask what it takes to get a federal trademark registration. Here’s a quick rundown:

1. Trademark clearance - The first step entails searching the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s database to find previously-filed applications and registrations to determine if your trademark would create a likelihood of confusion. If the marks are similar and the goods or services are similar, the PTO’s examining attorney will deny your application. It makes sense to know what your chances are of getting your trademark registered before you file (and pay the fees). Generic, descriptive, and other types of marks also will be refused and, therefore, risk not being registered.

2. Filing the application - It’s easy to fill out the PTO’s interface. The challenge is making judgment calls along the way, including who owns the application; whether any part of the mark needs to be disclaimed as being unprotectable; how to describe the associated goods or services; what the PTO will accept as proof of use; and whether the mark is generic, descriptive, likely to cause confusion with an existing application or registration, or is subject to any of the other statutory bars to registration. The PTO charges $275 per class of goods or services (if you avail yourself of one of its pre-approved descriptions) and $325 if you write your own.

3. Examination - After filing, your application will sit in an electronic “in” box for a few months before anyone looks at it. When your time comes, an examining attorney will review your application for completeness and against the statutory bars to registration. The more common refusals are for being descriptive and for causing a likelihood of confusion with an existing application or registration. If the examining attorney objects, he or she will issue an “office action” explaining the basis for the refusal. You will then have six months to respond in an effort to address the deficiency or to change the examining attorney’s mind.

4. Publication - Once you clear the examination hurdle, you’re almost home free. The next step is the PTO publishes your mark for potential opposition by third parties. Once published, third parties have 30 days to file a notice of opposition, essentially starting a mini-lawsuit about whether you are entitled to your registration. Third parties can oppose based most commonly on claimed earlier trademark rights in a confusingly similar trademark. Opposition proceedings are decided by a three-judge panel of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, the PTO’s administrative law arm.

5. Notice of allowance - If you filed on an intent-to-use (reservation) basis, after clearing the examination and publication hurdles, the PTO issues a “notice of allowance.” That means your mark has been accepted subject to your proving that you have put your mark to use in connection with all of the goods or services listed in your application. You have six months to do so. The PTO charges $100 to process your proof of use. If you need extra time, you can literally buy some. The PTO charges $150 per class of goods to extend the time to file your proof of use by six months. You can keep paying for extensions every six months for up to three years. After that point, if you haven’t proven that you have put your mark to use, your application will be deemed to be abandoned — as if your application had never been filed.

6. Registration - If the PTO accepts your proof of use (if you filed on an intent-to-use basis) or if you cleared the examination and publication hurdles (if you filed on a use basis), the PTO will issue your registration. Congratulations — you’ve accomplished your goal. The filing-to-registration process takes at least 10-12 months.

7. Maintenance - After getting your registration, you’re in the clear for five years. But then you need to start making a series of periodic filings with the PTO to keep your registration current and, in one instance, to cut off potential attacks on your registration. Failure to do so can work to abandon your registration.

I hope this clarifies the process!