Discover how US trademarks work, including registration, searches, trademark classes, applications, infringement, and brand protection..
Can You Change Your Trademark Class After Filing? So you filed your trademark application, felt pretty good about it, and then a nagging thought creeps in, what if you picked the wrong class? Maybe your business has grown since then, or maybe you’re just second-guessing whether the classification you chose actually fits. Either way, you’re … Read more
What Happens If Your Trademark Specimen Is Refused? You did everything right, filled out the application, picked your class, wrote a clean description, and then it happens anyway. Your specimen gets refused. If you’re staring at an office action right now wondering what this actually means, take a breath first, this is a lot more … Read more
What Is the USPTO Trademark ID Manual? If you’ve started working on a trademark application, chances are you’ve come across something called the Trademark ID Manual, or just the ID Manual for short. It’s not the flashiest part of the process, but it’s genuinely one of the more useful tools out there, and skipping it … Read more
How to Choose the Right Trademark Class One of the first things that trips people up when they start a trademark application isn’t the name itself, it’s the classification. The USPTO wants you to pick a class, or sometimes a few, that describe exactly what your goods or services are, and getting this wrong can … Read more
What Is a Trademark Disclaimer? If you’ve ever looked closely at a trademark registration and spotted a small note saying something like “no claim is made to the exclusive right to use ‘coffee’ apart from the mark as shown,” you’ve bumped into what’s called a trademark disclaimer. It reads confusing the first time, but once … Read more
What Happens After Filing an Intent-to-Use Trademark Application? You filed your intent-to-use trademark application. The confirmation email came through, the fee cleared, and now you’re just… waiting. If you’re sitting there wondering what’s actually supposed to happen next, you’re definitely not the only one. This part of the process gets skipped over a lot in … Read more
What Is an Intent-to-Use Trademark Application? Say you’ve landed on a great name for a business or a product, but nothing’s actually live yet. Maybe the packaging isn’t finalized, the website’s still half-built, or you’re waiting on funding before anything officially launches. Can you still file for a trademark before any of that happens? Turns … Read more
Trademark Specimen Examples for a Website Most businesses today sell through a website instead of a physical store, so it only makes sense that a lot of trademark applicants want to use their website as their specimen. Sounds simple enough in theory. In practice, the USPTO has fairly specific rules about what kind of webpage … Read more
What Is an Acceptable Trademark Specimen? At some point during the trademark filing process, you’ll run into the word “specimen,” and then, almost immediately after, a second question pops up: okay, but what actually counts as an acceptable one? It’s a fair thing to get stuck on. The USPTO isn’t just looking for any random … Read more
What Is a Trademark Specimen? If you’ve started filing a trademark and suddenly hit a wall over something called a “specimen,” you’re not alone. It’s one of those terms that shows up in USPTO paperwork without much explanation, and it trips up a surprising number of first-time filers. Some people assume it’s just another word … Read more