Trademark Registration on the Supplemental Register

Most people know the of the numerous benefits of owning a trademark registration on the Principal Register for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In fact, trademark owners are urged by trademark attorneys to select distinctive marks in order to be able to, upon handy in interstate commerce, be registered there and enjoy numerous presumptions because validity, ownership, and notice. However, the Supplemental Register even offers value, especially once the alternative is away from the question the first time.

Before the benefits associated with being supplementally registered is discussed, you’ll want to understand that that your 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 goods or services to which the objective pertains. Such placement does not spend the money for 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 your validity of the registered mark or of the trademark registrant’s ownership within the mark. Finally, it is an admission that the mark is not inherently distinctive.

While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s should be registered on the primary Register, a supplemental registration has great things about its own. In fact, some entities choose to possess a Online Brand Name Registration India that tells consumers what everyone they are offering (e.g. Pizza Restaurant) as opposed for inherently distinctive mark (.e.g. Domino’s) that requires effort to create consumer recognition. Such marks are not going to warrant principal placement, although they be supplementally created. After five years on the Supplemental Register, the mark may qualify for the main Register due there 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 every one of the. While ultimately the Principal Register provides the most benefits and best protection, the Supplemental Register should be considered where an entity prefers what is likely to be a merely descriptive mark at the outset or didn’t acquire the requisite distinctiveness to be registered on where lots of deem as the preferred spot.