TRADEMARKS & SERVICE MARKS

The firm can assist you with pursuing trademark protection through common law usage and state, federal and international registrations, as well as with trademark availability opinions, validity and infringement analyses, and licensing and enforcing your trademark rights.

Some people confuse patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Although there may be some similarities among these kinds of intellectual property protection, they are different and serve different purposes.

What is a Trademark or Service Mark?

A trademark is a word, name, symbol, device or combination thereof which is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others. A service mark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. The terms "trademark" and "mark" are commonly used to refer to both trademarks and service marks.

Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark. Trademarks which are used in interstate commerce may be registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office.