Priority of Use and Distinctiveness are Key. Common Law Rights Are Two Giant Steps Below Federal Principal Registration Rights. Federal Registration Expands the Reach of a Trademark. Hart, Schaffner and Marx , 760 F. Priority or First to Use. Potential trademarks and parts of potential trademarks that are not inherently distinctive.

Registering a Potential Trademark with the USPTO. When a USPTO Federal Trademark application is first submitted, an initial examination is completed by the trademark examiner. This examination includes a trademark search for conflicting marks with other federally registered marks and prior pending marks. Conflicts are based on the Likelihood of Confusion. Likelihood of confusion is the most common refusal.

Not Just Patents Often Represents the Underdog. Most of our clients are small businesses trying to protect their trademarks, often from someone bigger who is claiming that the smaller businesses trademark is likely to be confused. With the mark of the bigger company. When big companies try to enforce their trademark rights beyond what is reasonable and legal, it can be called trademark bullying. Many trademark oppositions or cancellations are preceded with a cease and desist letter.

58 USPQ2d 1523, 1526-.

Trademark Searching Using TESS and Other Frequently Asked Questions. TESS is for searching all pending and registered USPTO Trademarks and viewing Trademark images. See Published for Opposition search instructions. For specific search instructions on how to use TESS for searching for marks that have been published for opposition. What is in TESS? Whether or not a likeliho.

Any word, term, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof that are used. In commerce as brand names, domain names, tag lines, slogans, non-. Functional and distinctive packaging and labeling designs, etc. To be a valid mark, a potential mark must actually function as a trademark. The Trademark Act is not an act to register words but to register trad.