Logo Registration on the Supplemental Register

Most people know the of the numerous benefits of owning a Trademark Attorney in India registration close to the Principal Register of your United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In fact, trademark owners are urged by trademark attorneys to select distinctive marks in a position to be able to, upon easily use in interstate commerce, be registered there and savor numerous presumptions since validity, ownership, and notice. However, the Supplemental Register also has value, especially once the alternative is your own the question at the beginning.

Before the great things about being supplementally registered is discussed, advised that you understand that which a supplemental registration doesn’t provide. Marks are often relegated to the Supplemental Register because, at the request of the USPTO examining attorney, the marks are merely descriptive and therefore not a distinctive identifier of the source of the services or goods to which the mark pertains. Such placement does not pay for the exclusive right on this the mark in commerce in experience with its identified services or goods. Equally important, it does not serve as prima facie evidence of the validity of the registered mark or of the trademark registrant’s ownership of your mark. Finally, it’s an admission that the mark is not inherently distinctive.

While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s hopeful registered on the primary Register, a supplemental registration has advantages of its own. In fact, some entities choose to have a brand that tells consumers what it is they are offering (e.g. Pizza Restaurant) as opposed a good inherently distinctive mark (.e.g. Domino’s) that needs effort to create consumer recognition. Such marks are not going to warrant principal placement, meant for be supplementally created. After five years on the Supplemental Register, the mark may qualify for the primary Register due with out having acquired distinctiveness. It is worth noting that both allow the owner to use the registered trademark symbol, sue in federal court, and take benefit from certain international agreements.

Thus, any registration with the USPTO is better than having no trademark registration at all. While ultimately the Principal Register provides the most benefits and best protection, the Supplemental Register should be considered where an entity prefers what may be a merely descriptive mark at the outset or has failed to acquire the requisite distinctiveness to be registered on where many deem as the preferred spot.