Month: February 2019

Why Protect Weak Trademarks?

{3:30 minutes to read} The more distinctive a trademark is, the broader and stronger rights the owner will have in that trademark. But not every company chooses a distinctive name. Oftentimes businesses want the company name to describe what the company does so that consumers viewing the name will have an immediate understanding of the nature or a feature of a product or service. So for example, Salty as the name of a salty snack product. A name that describes...

When Search Results Go Stale

By Kelly Weiner

Studio photo of a hourglass on reflective table

{2 minutes to read} When selecting a new name for a business, product, or service, one of the first steps should be a trademark availability search to look for potentially “confusingly similar” trademarks that could block the registration of your trademark. Ideally, the next step would be to file a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to preserve your rights to the name. If you allow too much time to pass between conducting the search and...