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Trademarks vs. Register Marks
Many people don't realize it's perfectly legal to display
a TM (trademark) or SM (service mark) with your logo or logotype
without federal clearance. Using a TM or SM merely serves
as informal notice to the public that commercial trading is
taking place under that mark. To display a ®, however,
you must officially register your mark with the U.S. Trademark
Office in Washington.
Protecting your trademarks
Once upon a time, thermos, victrola, cellophane, nylon, escalator,
aspirin and linoleum were trademarks but eventually became
part of the public domain because their owners failed to protect
their property. The problem arises when the public begins
using a trademark as a generic description for a product category
rather than a specific brand within that category. That's
why companies develop strict guidelines for the use and protection
of their trademarks. Some of the basic rules for protecting
a trademark include:
1. Make sure the trademark word is capitalized or set off
in distinctive type.
2. Always follow the mark with the generic name of the product
(i.e. BIG MAC® sandwich)
3. Don't speak of it in the plural (Wrong: Buy two BIG MACs
get one free; Right: Buy two BIG MAC sandwiches get one free)
4. Don't use it in a possessive form (Wrong: BIG MAC's big
taste; Right: BIG MAC sandwich's big taste)
Do increases in trademark applications signal economic recovery?
According to trademark attorneys at Dechert Price & Rhoads,
the economy must be picking up. About 140,000 trademarks were
registered last year. This is up 10,000 over the previous year
and 30,000 more than two years ago. They also found a decrease
in the number of marks using the word “value” and an increase
in marks using the words “internet” and “virtual.”
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