Who Does NOT Need a Registered Trademark?

Who does not need a registered trademark on the name or logo of their company? Well there are a few cases…

You don’t care about your brand identity

This is not some snarky comment. Some business owners really are not interested in building a brand name. The most common businesses that don’t care about branding are owners of residential real estate who rent out the properties they own. The “brand” is locked up in the location and amenities of each individual property. Most residential real estate investors aren’t building a brand, they are just buying and leasing locations. Don’t worry about registering a trademark in this circumstance. Of course, for every ten such residential property owners, there is one entrepreneur with an idea to build a brand out of some aspect of their rental offerings. In that case, you’d better register that trademark!

You care more about getting the url than the value in a name

If you discover that MyBusinessDescription.com is available, you might just want to name your company in a way that describes what it does so you can grab that domain.  This happens a lot! You cannot get a trademark on a name that merely describes your business activity. But who is to say that having the right domain is not better than any trademark?

Your LOCATION is the most important aspect of your business

The Broad Street Cleaners of Falls Church says it all. Really! Who else can this name represent? No one in Richmond or St. Louis is going to use this name just to copy you and build on your notoriety. And if someone else in Falls Church does try to use that name, they’d be infringing a common law copyright that the State is bound to protect. Now having said that, there have been instances if trademark registration by the likes of Broadway Pizza (US Trademark Reg No 1247363). It’s okay to be so proud of your location and your pies that you you don’t want anyone else copying the name.

Someone else is already using your brand

Oops! You waited too long to register your own trademark, or you didn’t do your homework when you grabbed that company name to start up. And now you are a technical infringer on someone else’s brand. You cannot register your company’s name to protect it, so you lie low, hoping the rightful owner of the business identity you are investing in never notices you. This is a precarious position to be in, to be sure, and the longer you let it go, the more difficult it becomes to rectify. But you are in fact hoping that you don’t grow so big that you get caught, so you tell yourself, “I don’t need no stinkin’ trademark!”

Entrepreneurs are going to save the world, and Argent Place^® Law wants to help. Whether you are ready to start your own company now, or you are expanding your business, or you’re getting ready to sell your business, Argent Place Law can help you succeed. Think how great it will be to have a lawyer with entrepreneurial experience on your speed dial whom you can call up and say, “I want to get a trademark so no one else can use my company’s name to do what I do. What do I do next?” Schedule an appointment, or just call Argent Place Law to find out: 703-539-2518.