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Frequently Asked Questions

What rights does trademark registration grant?

Pellerano & Herrera. Attorneys at law.
Registration grants the exclusive right of use over the trademark and entitles its holder to object to any use of the registered trademark made in any manner whatsoever by third parties, apart from usual commercial indications or legitimately marked products that the holder, directly or indirectly, has put into commerce, whether in the country or abroad, provided the product has not suffered any modification.
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How long does a trademark registration last?

Trademark FAQ
For a trademark registration to remain valid, an Affidavit of Use ("Section 8 Affidavit") must be filed: (1) between the fifth and sixth year following registration, and (2) within the year before the end of every ten-year period after the date of registration. The registrant may file the affidavit within a grace period of six months after the end of the sixth or tenth year, with payment of an additional fee.
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How are trademark rights acquired?

Trademark FAQ's
Trademark rights are not acquired through the registration process. Common law ownership rights are acquired through actual use of the mark in commerce. Generally, the first person to use a trademark is the first person to acquire rights to the mark.
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Do I have to have a federal trademark registration to have rights in a trademark?

Control Protect & Leverage -- a Leyendecker & Lemire Blog
This one we get asked a bunch. In fact, if I had a dollar for every time I was asked this question . . . well needless to say I probably wouldn?t be sitting here doing this blog post. Contrary to popular belief, trademark rights do not arise through the actual registration of the trademarks. Trademark rights arise through an individual's or company's use of the trademark to identify their goods or services in commerce. The rights that arise though this use are referred to as common law rights.
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Miami Lawyer: Franchise Trademark Corporate Intellectual Pro...
Trademark registration can last indefinitely if the trademark remains in continuous use and the registration is renewed every 10 years. Also, between the fifth and sixth anniversary of the initial registration date, an affidavit of continued use must be filed.
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A TO Z SERVICES - A COMPLETE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS PROVIDER
A trademark registration is valid for seven years from the date of filing. You have to apply for renewal after this time-period. No. A separate application must be filed for each mark the applicant wishes to register. Likewise, if the applicant wishes to register the same mark in more than one class, a separate application must be filed for each class.
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FAQs
Surprisingly, it can take roughly two years on average to receive a federal trademark registration. This does not mean, however, that you have no trademark rights until you receive your certificate of registration. For marks that you are already using in commerce, you have certain common law trademark rights, including the right to prevent others from using similar marks on similar goods and/or services in the geographic areas in which you operate your business.
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justtrademarks.com
Under normal circumstances, the trademark registration process takes between 12 and 18 months. Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean you must wait to use your trademark until the registration issues. In fact, since your rights begin from the moment you start using your trademark, you should certainly not wait until your registration issues.
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What rights do trademark holders have?

FAQ about Fan Fiction -- Chilling Effects Clearinghouse
A trademark owner has the right to use exclusively, or to license the name or likeness of his character to avoid customer confusion and to prevent others from profiting off of the owner's intellectual property. For example, you can't market "Star Wars ray guns", because LucasFilm owns the right to that name, and customers may be confused into thinking that your ray gun is sponsored or produced by LucasFilm.
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How Do I Get Trademark Rights?

Trademark Registration - Register a Trademark Application In...
To own a trademark in the United States all you need to do is be the first to use it in trade and make continuous use of the mark thereafter. In addition, you need to make proper use of it (1) to use it in interstate commerce, and (2) in a way that permits consumers to distinguish your particular goods and services from those of another producer.
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What steps must be taken to preserve the rights in an existing trademark registration?

FAQ on Trademarks
First, the trademark must not be abandoned. It must be used continuously and the mark must be affixed to the goods (or tags or packaging) or displayed in association with the services. An affidavit of continuous use must be filed during the fifth year after the registration issues. An affidavit of five years of continuous use should also be filed to establish incontestible rights to the trademark. The trademark registration should then be renewed every ten (10) years thereafter.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Trademarks
For a trademark registration to remain valid, an Affidavit of Use ("Section 8 Affidavit") must be filed: (1) between the fifth and sixth year following registration, and (2) within the year before the end of every ten-year period after the date of registration. The registrant may file the affidavit within a grace period of six months after the end of the sixth or tenth year, with payment of an additional fee.
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Are there any special requirements for obtaining a state trademark registration?

Trademark FAQ's
Yes. The requirements for state trademark registration may be found in Chapter 16 of the Texas Business & Commerce Code and in the administrative rules adopted by the secretary of state. There are two basic requirements for state trademark registration. A mark must be in use in Texas and must be inherently distinctiveness or, if not inherently distinctive, it must have acquired distinctiveness through a person’s substantial and exclusive use.
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Question: What are the limits of trademark rights?

FAQ about Trademark -- Chilling Effects Clearinghouse
The term is a way to describe another good or service, using its descriptive term and not its secondary meaning. The idea behind this fair use is that a trademark holder does not have the exclusive right to use a word that is merely descriptive, since this decreases the words available to describe.
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Question: How long do trademark rights last?

FAQ about Trademark -- Chilling Effects Clearinghouse
Answer: Trademark rights can last indefinitely if the trademark owner continues to use the mark to identify goods or services. According to the PTO website, "The term of a federal trademark registration is 10 years, with 10-year renewal terms. However, between the fifth and sixth year after the date of initial registration, the registrant must file an affidavit setting forth certain information to keep the registration alive. If no affidavit is filed, the registration is canceled."
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How do I obtain a federal trademark registration?

Trademark FAQ
You can fill out an application online, check it for completeness, and file it over the Internet using the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS), at http://www.uspto.gov/teas/index.html. You can also respond to Office actions and file, notices of change of address, allegations of use and requests for extension of time to file a statement of use through TEAS.
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Question: What exactly are the rights a trademark owner has?

FAQ about Trademark -- Chilling Effects Clearinghouse
Answer: In the US, trademark rights come from actual use of the mark to label one's services or products or they come from filing an application with the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) that states an intention to use the mark in future commerce. In most foreign countries, trademarks are valid only upon registration. The person who establishes priority rights in a mark gains the exclusive right to use it to label or identify their goods or services, and to authorize others to do so.
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Question: Do I have to register my brand name to get trademark rights?

FAQ about Trademark -- Chilling Effects Clearinghouse
Answer: Not in the United States. Here, you do not need to register a mark to establish rights to it, though registration provides important advantages. Registering a mark means that the registrant is presumed to be the owner of the mark for goods and services specified in the application. This makes proving your rights easier in court. However, US federal law also provides rights to unregistered (“common law”) marks if they are actually used in commerce.
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Question: What are "common law" rights in a trademark?

FAQ about Trademark -- Chilling Effects Clearinghouse
Answer: Common law rights are those that are recognized by courts as a matter of traditional equitable principles and fairness, even when there is no statute or other law that has been enacted by the legislative branch of government to cover the situation. It also arises from the leeway that judges have in interpretating the language of the written laws when the meaning is not clear. Common law is often known as "judge-made" law.
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How are trademark rights obtained?

Cooley Godward Kronish LLP | Trademark FAQ
In the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom (as well as most former British Commonwealth countries), the rule is "first to use." In other words, trademark rights are obtained by actual use of the trademark on a product or service in commerce. Registration is not required, but it gives important advantages. In most other countries, the rule is "first to file." This means that rights are obtained by registration with the government.
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How can I protect my trademark rights?

Cooley Godward Kronish LLP | Trademark FAQ
Advertise your ownership. The? ??? symbol is used for unregistered trademarks, while the ?? symbol indicates that a mark is registered with an official agency such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office or the Office for Harmonization of the Internal Market (the European Community trademark agency). Using the appropriate symbol next to your trademarks advertises your company???s ownership of its marks. Use your trademarks correctly.
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Can I acquire trademark rights in my domain name?

Frequently Asked Questions about trademarks | Your Trademark...
Yes. All you need to do is use your domain name as if it were a trademark. Read Proper Use of a domain name for details.
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Bodner & O'Rourke, LLP, is a new york law firm specializ...
By filing an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (hereinafter based on a bona fide intent to use the mark on a product or in association with a service that is soon to be offered to the public, or Under federal law, an application for registration may be filed based on either actual use of the mark or a bona fide intent to use the mark in commerce.
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How Do I Establish Trademark Rights?

Copysearch - Frequently Asked Questions
Trademark rights arise from either 1) actual use of the mark in commerce, or 2) the filing of a proper application to register application to register a mark in the Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) stating the the applicant has a bona fide intention-to-use the mark in commerce. (The terms "commerce" and "use in commerce" are specialized terms, usually meaning interstate commerce that can be regulated by the U.S. Congress; please see below).
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How are trademark rights established?

FAQ on Trademarks
In the United States, trademark rights are created through actual use of a trademark. However, as of 1989, a trademark may be reserved by filing an Intent to Use trademark application prior to actual use.
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What if I don't want Netscape to have special rights to the code I write? Do I have to grant them?

Netscape Public License FAQ
All modifications to the original code released by Netscape are governed by the NPL. If you are writing something that you don't want to be governed by the NPL, then you must make sure that it is not a ''modification'' under the definitions of the NPL. In this case, you may release your code under the MozPL. It is precisely for this purpose that we have provided the alternative license. We have moved very quickly to ready our code for release on March 31, and we may have missed something.
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