Overview of Federal Trademark Protection
Acquiring federal trademark rights is critically important for any brand or business. he Lanham Act is a federal law that governs trademarks in the United States. Its primary purpose is to protect consumers and businesses from confusion and deception in the marketplace by providing legal protections for trademarks and other indications of the source or quality of goods or services.
The Lanham Act is designed to promote fair competition and prevent false advertising and unfair business practices. Specifically, it is designed to:
Protect the rights of trademark owners: The Lanham Act gives trademark owners the exclusive right to use their marks in connection with the sale or advertising of goods or services, and provides legal remedies for infringement of those rights.
Prevent consumer confusion: The Lanham Act prohibits the use of marks that are likely to cause confusion, mistake, or deception as to the source or origin of goods or services. This helps ensure that consumers can make informed purchasing decisions based on accurate information about the products they are buying.
Encourage fair competition: The Lanham Act prohibits unfair competition, false advertising, and other deceptive practices that harm consumers or unfairly disadvantage competitors.
Promote the integrity of the trademark system: The Lanham Act provides for the registration of trademarks with the USPTO, which helps to maintain the integrity of the trademark system and prevent fraudulent or improper use of trademarks.
In summary, the Lanham Act is designed to protect the rights of trademark owners, prevent consumer confusion, encourage fair competition, and promote the integrity of the trademark system.
Enhancing Your Rights Through Federal Trademark Registration
A federally registered trademark provides many trademark benefits to the owner of the trademark by providing the exclusive right to use the trademark. Trademark protection also provides the owner the ability to seek court enforcement of infringing trademarks. Trademark registration give you a presumption of validity. It also creates nationwide protection as well as the ability to register your trademark internationally, which is the biggest advantage of filing your trademark with the USPTO.
Common Law protection gives trademark rights based on priority of use in a certain geographic area. However, a registered trademark user is given exclusive rights to use the trademark nationwide. The only way for a trademark user to defeat a registered trademark user is if they can show they used the trademark prior to the registration’s filing date and if they had acquired common law rights. This only protects the trademark for that geographic area – not nationwide. Thus, the best way to obtain the highest legal protection is to use the trademark and file for federal trademark protection.
Enforcement of Trademark Protection
Federally registering your trademark provides the added benefit of being able to enforce your trademark rights in a lawsuit in U.S. federal courts. There are various advatanges to suing in federal court, one being the ability to recover attorneys’ fees as well as the ability to recover the maximum amount of damages, treble damages, in a trademark suit. This deters others from infringing on your trademark.
