Trademarks protect brands and the reputation of products, and service marks protect the reputation of services. Trademark rights arise from use of a mark when the mark is associated with goods or services so that the mark is an indicator of the source of the goods or services. Building a brand presence and acquiring a reputation for quality are important business interests and can generate valuable property rights. Indeed, for certain corporations, their intellectual property provides a majority of their value; think Apple, Kellogg’,s or Coca-Cola.
Trademarks are intimately linked to advertising, since it is use of a mark with products/services that gives rise to trademark rights. Brands are developed over time, with sustained and concentrated presentation to consumers leading to brand recognition and association of the mark with a source of the goods/services. Advertising is a major boost to this effort. Advertising has its own set of rules that are protected by U.S. and state unfair competition laws.
Our experienced attorneys guide your path through the complicated steps of building your brand, determining the best method of protecting it under intellectual property laws — e.g., trademark, copyright or unfair competition — and pursuing the protection through the US Patent and Trademark Office, or if appropriate, through state registration.
Since a trademark registration is a tool to gain a business advantage over competitors, we evaluate, search, and provide opinions regarding the likelihood of securing registration for proposed trademarks and service marks and the anticipated strength of the resulting marks. If you elect to proceed with the registration process, we assist in obtaining the documents and preparing a trademark application for your mark, and we file and guide the application through the trademark prosecution process in the USPTO until we obtain the desired registration.
Our trademark team has deep experience in handling and litigating trademark disputes in a wide variety of industries. The trademark attorneys at Ziliak Law routinely police and enforce our clients’ marks to curb infringement and unfair competition. Our attorneys have also litigated trademark cases in federal courts throughout the country and before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, as well as supervised the prosecution of infringement actions outside the US. In addition, our attorneys defend our clients against accusations of trademark infringement brought by others. The trademark advice we provide is grounded in decades of collective experience, and we focus on providing efficient, high-quality representation that is sensitive to our clients’ business needs.
Our attorneys also advise on building and monetizing a trademark or brand portfolio, assist in transferring IP rights and licensing trademark rights, and provide opinions regarding trademark use and competition matters.
If you have scheduled a meeting with a Ziliak Law Trademark attorney, please fill out the following form: Trademark Intake Form.
