Trademark Attorney, Lawyer: Trademark Registration & Trademark Infringement

Trademark Monitoring Is Critical To Online Brand Protection

brand monitoring is a phenomena which really kind of has grown up with the Internet. In the old brick and mortar world, you might worry about someone else using your trademark, but your ability to actually see that someone else was using your trademark or brand was very limited. So you might see an advertisement in the paper if you were lucky, that showed that someone else was using something that was either identical or similar enough to your trademark that it might cause consumer confusion. In the Internet space, now 99% of everything that happens commercially is also reflected on the worldwide web, it's reflected online, so it's very easy to see when other people, third parties, use a brand or mark that is too similar to your preexisting trademark.

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With: Enrico Schaefer

Sponsored by: Traverse Trademark Law

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Do I need a Trademark Availability Assessment or Clearance Prior to Trademark Registration?

Welcome to Trademark Law Radio, a top web resource on issues of trademark infringement, trademark licensing, trademark protection, and trademark registration.

This is Brian Hall, a trademark attorney with Traverse Legal, PLC, a trademark law firm that helps clients secure trademark registrations in the United States and throughout the world.  Today, I will be answering the question:  Do I need a trademark availability assessment or clearance prior to trademark registration?  

The short answer to this question is yes.  While it is not absolutely required, it is something that I always recommend to clients.  And there are really two reasons why anybody looking to protect their trademark via a trademark registration should start with an availability assessment, also sometimes called a trademark clearance. 

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With: Brian A. Hall

Sponsored by: Traverse Trademark Law

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Internet Law Attorney Discusses Trademark Monitoring | Trademark Litigation

Welcome to Trademark Law Radio sponsored by Traverse Legal, internet law attorneys specializing in intellectual property law.  In this episode, Trademark Attorney Brian A. Hall discusses the benefits trademark monitoring for protection against cybersquatting and trademark infringement.

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With: Brian A. Hall

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Attorney Brian A. Hall:  Now that you’ve successfully acquired a trademark registration, it is important to recognize that your work is not done.  You have an affirmative duty to protect against an unauthorized use of your trademark. Your failure to do so can result in you losing your trademark rights.  Therefore, trademark monitoring is an extremely important part of all trademark owners’ continuing obligation to protect their trademarks.  Trademark monitoring not only protects the trademark, but also ensures the value continues to be applied to that trademark. 

Trademark Clearance Search: What Trademark Databases Should I Be Searching?

In today’s global marketplace, it is a virtual certainty that every brand describing a good or service has a trademark issues.  There is essentially a shortage of available words and increased tension between use of those brands in different countries. 

Trademark Due Diligence Is Critical Before Going into Any Business

A recent domain dispute decision highlights the importance of doing a trademark clearance search before picking any business, brand or product name.  The Parking Page Dilemma: Frank Schilling loses chillibeans.com domain under UDRP, illustrates that both courts and arbitration panels expect companies to proactively ensure that they are not infringing on someone else’s trademark rights and/or prior trademark registrations before picking a domain name.

There are three lessons every domainer --  at least those who are willing to deal with the legal realities under the UDRP and ACPA  --  should take from this decision.

(1) do a trademark search for every valuable domain within your portfolio,

(2) exclude ads to the extent you can from being served up on your parked pages which include products in trademark protected areas, and

(3) consider excluding your most valuable domains from parking programs all together (they are worth more 'for sale' than from parked revenue).

Trademark Monitoring Is The Key To Trademark Protection

Today’s program is brought to you by the attorneys at Traverse Legal, PLC, a global law firm specializing in Internet law, Trademark infringement, Copyright Infringement, Cybersquatting, On-Line Defamation, Non-Compete & Trade Secret Law and Complex litigation. If you have a legal matter arising on the web, contact one of Traverse Legal’s internet lawyers today.

DAMIEN  Good afternoon and welcome to Vertio Talk Radio. Today we are speaking with Brian Hall.  Brian is an attorney with Traverse Legal, PLC, and his practice focuses on trademark matters including trademark clearances and registrations, opposition and cancellation proceedings in front of the TTAB, licensing issues and federal court litigation.  Brian also regularly handles domain dispute resolutions, internet law matters, and related business representation matters.  Good morning, Brian, how are you doing?

BRIAN:  Doing well.

DAMIEN  So today we are talking about trademark monitoring so what exactly is trademark monitoring?

What is a Trademark Availability Search?

       

This post will examine a basic trademark availability search. If you have a more complex trademark issue, or are investing significant funds in your trademark, you should search additional databases beyond those described herein.

Q. What is a tradmeark availability search?

A. In General, trademark availability is a search done by a qualified trademark attorney or staff member under that attorney’s direction to identify other possible uses of the market of your proposed trademark, or words which may create customer confusion as related to your proposed trademark in your proposed industry.

Trademark Monitoring Identifies Third Party Use: A Qualified Trademark Attorney Will Help You Understand How To Protect Your Marks In Cyberspace

Trademark Protection: The Necessary Evil of Analytics : StraightUpSearch

At the start of the 3rd quarter, marketing plans and budgets will be made, debated and negotiated for 2009. Marketers, executives and business owners need to consider not only how marketing and advertising strategies from the past have performed but also what important elements are missing from your plan. One often overlooked item in online marketing plans is trademark monitoring services, as a part of your comprehensive analytics package.

Trademark monitoring is only part of the effort required to protect your brands in cyberspace. Further, monitoring uses of your trademark protected words in keyword advertising represents a small niche of potential infringing uses.

You need a qualified trademark attorney to analyze the results of the trademark monitoring effort. Only a qualified trademark attorney can offer competent legal advice about what uses of your trademark protected words may qualify of trademark infringement, send a trademark cease and desist letter where applicable and guide your company through the myriad of issues related to potential on-line trademark infringement. Contact a trademark attorney to learn more about on-line brand protection and trademark monitoring services.

Trademark Auditing is More Important than Ever: Trademark Registration Requires a Lot More than Simply Filing with the USPTO

The United States Patent and Trademark Office, like most government offices, survives on the accuracy of its data.  Trademark applications and other submissions to the USPTO are expected to be accurate.  A simple mistake in the listing of goods and services can be seen as perpetrating a fraud on the USPTO and will completely invalidate an application, even where the other listed goods and services were not affected by the mistake.  This makes trademark auditing an extremely important part of any trademark holder's intellectual property protection strategy.  Trademark auditing is an evaluation of a company or individual's marks to ensure that those marks remain accurately registered in association with the correct classes of goods or services.  Failing to accurately register or monitor your marks can result in losing one of your most valuable assets: the goodwill associated with your trademark.

Fighting Trademark Infringement: Monitor Third Party Uses and Send Trademark Notice or Trademark Threat Letters as Necessary

If it becomes necessary to challenge a third party's use of a mark, the most important legal hurdle to jump is the right to the mark. If you are to stop the use of another party's mark, you have to be able to prove that you have superior rights to the mark. This is to say that the third party started using the mark after your company.

It is also important for a court to realize the confusion that the trademark violation has upon consumers, as a "likelihood of confusion" is necessary to win relief for a trademark infringement. This often means that both the marks and the products or services involved must be sufficiently similar to cause confusion.

However, with the help of an attorney, it is possible to protect your trademark from being infringed upon in the first place. The most effective way to do this is by filing opposition to the registration of another mark with the appropriate trademark office, which, if successful, will have the application denied.

A follow up to achieving the denial of a third party's trademark application is to send them a "cease and desist" letter, which will allow you to confirm that they have stopped using your prior registered trademark.