Brand Registration on the Extra Register
Most people are aware of the numerous benefits of owning a trademark registration on the Principal Register of your 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 easily use in interstate commerce, be registered there and enjoy numerous presumptions because validity, ownership, and notice. However, the Supplemental Register even offers value, especially as soon as the alternative is associated with your the question the first time.
Before the advantages of being supplementally registered is discussed, it is important to understand that that your supplemental registration does not provide. Marks typically be 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 services or goods to which the mark pertains. Such placement does not afford the exclusive right added with the mark in commerce in experience with its identified goods or services. Equally important, it does not serve as prima facie evidence of the validity of the registered mark or of the Trademark Attorney in India registrant’s ownership of this mark. Finally, it’s an admission that the mark is not inherently distinctive.
While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s desire to be registered on the primary Register, a supplemental registration has benefits associated with its own. In fact, some entities choose to possess a brand that tells consumers what it is they are offering (e.g. Pizza Restaurant) as opposed with regard to an inherently distinctive mark (.e.g. Domino’s) demands effort to create consumer recognition. Such marks are not going to warrant principal placement, meant for be supplementally licensed. After five years on the Supplemental Register, the mark may qualify for the key Register due with out having acquired distinctiveness. It is worth noting that both allow the owner to use the registered trademark symbol, sue in federal court, and take advantage of certain international agreements.
Thus, any registration with the USPTO is better than having no trademark registration at any. 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 a merely descriptive mark at the outset or has failed to acquire the requisite distinctiveness to be registered on where lots of deem as favored spot.
