7 Reasons To Register Trademarks - NOW
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Milord Keshishian June 20, 2006
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Milord Keshishian |
Milord Keshishian is an attorney protecting his clients' businesses,
inventions and investments by pursuing patent, trademark and copyright
protection therefor. Mr. Keshishian also has extensive experience in
litigating patent, trademark, trade secret, domain name and unfair
competition matters, as well as counseling clients in transactional
matters surrounding technology acquisitions and other ventures. For
further information, please visit http://www.milordlaw.com or send e-mail to [email protected]. |
Milord Keshishian
has written 2 articles for DomainInformer. |
View all articles by Milord Keshishian... |
Bruce Springsteen may be known as “The Boss,” but he is not The Boss
when it comes to controlling his trademark as a domain name. The famous
rock ‘n’ roll singer lost his www.brucespringsteen.com
domain name arbitration dispute to a notorious cybersquatter partly
because he had never registered his name as a trademark with the United
States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). If it can happen to
Springsteen, it can happen to you. Here are seven reasons why you
should become and remain The Boss of your trademarks by filing for
federal registration. (1) Valuable Asset. In
today’s Internet economy, trademarks are a valuable asset for companies
of any size and federally registering your trademarks with the USPTO
grants you valuable national rights to the trademarks. Coca-Cola® is
consistently ranked as one of the world’s most valuable trademarks with
annual revenue generating capacity in the billions of dollars. (2) Nationwide Priority.
By registering your trademarks federally, you preserve the right to
expand your business into geographic regions of the country where you
have not previously conducted business. If you do not have a federal
registration and you have only used your trademark in, for example,
California and Nevada, another person that later files an application
for registration of the same trademark -- even after you had started
use thereof -- can prevent your use of the trademark in any other
states other than California and Nevada. (3) Tool Against Cybersquatters.
If a cybersquatter is infringing on your trademark by registering it as
a domain name, federal registration of your trademark is one of the
elements considered in legal proceedings to determine the rightful
owner of the domain name. In addition, federal registration allows a
hold to be placed on the domain name until the ownership dispute is
determined through arbitration or by a court, thus preventing the
erosion of the goodwill and value in your trademarks. In a matter
handled by our office, because our client held federal trademark
registrations, we were able to force a cybersquatter to relinquish an
infringing domain name without incurring litigation expenses. (4) Advantages in Court.
Having a federally registered trademark provides the advantage of a
legal presumption that you are the owner of the trademark, that the
trademark is valid, and that you have the exclusive right to use the
trademark nationally. The federal registration certificate provides a
“stamp of approval” in the mind of a judge or jury that you are the
rightful owner of the trademark. Furthermore, a federal registration
provides the right to sue in federal court assuring oversight by judges
that are more familiar with trademark matters than those in the state
courts. (5) Enhanced Remedies for Infringement.
A federal registration provides notice and acts as a deterrent to
potential infringers that you are the exclusive owner of the trademark.
A federal registration allows for tripling of the actual damages
suffered by the owner, plus attorneys’ fees if someone infringes on
your trademark. (6) Prevent Importation. A
registered trademark may be filed with U.S. Customs Service to prevent
importation and allows for seizure of infringing foreign goods. (7) Incontestable Trademark.
After five years of continuous use and registration on the principal
register, certain grounds for cancellation of a registered trademark
are foreclosed, thereby saving you tremendous litigation expenses. In
another case handled by our office in which we represented the owner of
an unregistered trademark that had been in use for over five years, the
client was forced to expend litigation resources defending attacks on
the validity of its trademark which would have been foreclosed by the
five year registration. The nominal costs involved in federally
registering your trademarks are clearly outweighed by the significant
financial and legal advantages afforded to you. In order to be The Boss
of your trademarks, it is essential to register them now. For further information regarding trademark law, please e-mail Mr. Milord Keshishian at [email protected] or call (310) 446-8970. |