Protecting your trademarks from infringement is necessary to ensure that your trademarks, first, remain YOUR trademarks and, second, remain functioning as trademarks. It does not happen too often, but occasionally, a trademark left unpoliced will end up being canceled legally, which allows a competitor to begin using the trademark. A more common problem is genericide. This happens when the trademark becomes the common word for the product or service. As such, the trademark no longer functions as the identifier of a commercial source for a product or service. Rather, as noted, the word just stands for the product or service. ZIPPER is the oft-cited 20th Century example here, and GOOGLE is a modern example of a company fighting the good fight to ensure that they do not lose their trademark.
How to protect a trademark from infringement?
First and foremost, register your trademark. Mostly this is done with the federal U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. But trademarks can be — and are routinely — registered at the State level. This has been particularly true lately with the registration of cannabis-related trademarks.
In any event, registration protects your trademarks in several ways. The registration serves as a nationwide (or statewide) notice of ownership. Registration also grants more legal rights in the event of infringement litigation and allows a trademark owner to use the circle R (®) marking. After certain intervals of time, registration also leads to the incontestability of certain aspects of the trademark and can lead to additional legal protections if the trademark becomes famous. Registration can also serve as a “jump board” for getting your trademark registered in foreign countries, leading to international trademark protections.
Second, make sure you have both inside and outside protection strategies. Inside strategies involve training of employees and on how they can help protect your trademarks. Train them about consistent use of trademarks and how trademarks should be mentioned in text and on social media. Go ahead and use the circle R designation and ask your employees to enforce that use with non-employees with whom they interact.
An inside strategy also means hiring a person or a team of people to protect your trademarks. Nothing gets done unless someone is assigned the task of getting it done. Trademarks are valuable and are worth the employee time and money spent. With some companies, trademarks are the most valuable assets owned.
Outside strategies are basically monitoring, policing, and litigating. It is important to regularly monitor the marketplace for any infringing use. This also includes monitoring applications for registrations. If unauthorized use is located, then letters must be sent, legal action threatened, and the infringement must be stopped. Enforcement also includes any situations where the trademarks have been licensed. The licensees must be monitored and policed just as rigorously as outside third parties. As noted, outside strategies also require consistent and correct use of your trademark on packaging, advertising, websites, etc.
Contact the Trademark Attorneys at Revision Legal
For more information, contact the experienced Trademark Lawyers at Revision Legal. You can contact us through the form on this page or call (855) 473-8474.
