North Carolina Trademark Law
Trademarks are used to indicate the source of goods being sold and to distinguish them from goods from other sources. A servicemark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. Servicemarks are often referred to as “trademarks” or “marks.”
A trademark can be understood as the brand name used to identify items from a trademark owner. The value of the trademark to the owner increases as the strength of a brand grows with greater awareness of the brand by consumers and association with the products from that owner. Therefore, protecting the trademark can be very important to a business.
McClure IP can assist trademark owners in protecting the value that they have in the mark by registering the rights of the owner in the trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (the USPTO). 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. Only trademarks which are used in interstate or foreign commerce may be registered with the USPTO.
Owning a federal trademark registration on the Principal Register provides several advantages. These advantages include:
- constructive notice to the public of the registrant's claim of ownership of the mark;
- a legal presumption of the registrant's ownership of the mark and the registrant's exclusive right to use the mark nationwide on or in connection with the goods and/or services listed in the registration;
- the ability to bring an action concerning the mark in federal court;
- the use of the U.S registration as a basis to obtain registration in foreign countries; and
- the ability to file the U.S. registration with the U.S. Customs Service to prevent importation of infringing foreign goods.
The "TM" (trademark) or "SM" (service mark) designation is used to alert the public to your claim any time that rights are claimed in a mark. In other words, “TM” and “SM” can be used whether or not a mark is registered with the USPTO or in interstate commerce. But you may use the federal registration symbol "®" only after a mark is actually registered with the USPTO. Thus the registration symbol can be used with the mark only on or in connection with the goods and/or services listed in the federal trademark registration.
In addition to registering a mark, McClure IP can perform searches as to whether a particular mark might be available for registration with the USPTO. The results of a trademark search can be used by the owner of a mark to determine whether it would be worth while to file an application for registration of the mark with the USPTO. In this regard, if a mark that is similar to the owner’s mark is already registered with the USPTO, the owner’s mark will not be registered if it is determined to be confusingly similar to the older mark. Knowing this information up front can help the patent owner avoid unnecessary expenses in attempting to register a mark by prompting the owner to choose a mark that is more likely to be registered.
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