Trademark, Service Marks, and Intellectual Property

Trademarks and service marks help businesses distinguish their products and services from their competitors and can be of immense value.  For example, you can travel the world and recognize the Coca Cola logo everywhere even without the words. A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.  Service marks  distinguish the source of services while a trademark identifies products. (See http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks   In these days of Internet commerce and advertising, distinguishing a product or service only to the local market has become less of an option as any web page can be seen from anywhere in the world.   The Van Gils Law Firm provides registration services in Virginia and on the federal level. Registering a trade or service mark provides several critical advantages:

• Public notice of the ownership claim over the mark;
• The legal presumption of ownership and the exclusive right to use the mark; and
• If registered federally,
  •  the ability to bring an action in federal court
  • the ability  to obtain registration in foreign countries
  • the ability to record the U.S. registration with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service to prevent importation of infringing foreign goods;
  • the right to use the federal registration symbol ® and
  • listing in the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s online database.

For more information Email our Office.