Trademarks
For additional assistance, contact Maliaca Oxnam
While the library staff will gladly assist you with your search, we cannot perform searches or dispense legal information.
What is a Trademark?
A trademark is a symbol, word, phrase, design or any combination of these which identifies and distinguishes products and services of one party from those of another.
- Trademarks registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office are identified with the ® symbol.
- Federal trademark rights last for up to 10 years and can be renewed indefinitely in 10 year increments
- Trademarks can lapse between the 5th and 6th years if the applicant cannot show continued use of the Trademark during the previous 5-6 years.
Registering a trademark will not prevent others from selling the same or similar product or services, but it will prevent others from doing so under the same or a confusingly similar name or design. Marks are considered to be confusingly similar if they:
- sound alike
- look the same
- have the same meaning or commercial expression.
Registered trademarks should not be confused with service marks or unregistered trademarks.
- A service mark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a particular product.
- An unregistered (or common law) trademark is only valid in the geographic area where it is recognized. The trademark is valid until the owner stops using it.