Boca Raton Trademark Registration Lawyer
Perkins Law can register your Boca Raton trademark on your behalf to protect your brand in Florida or nationwide, depending on your needs. Creating a trademark or service mark is an essential step in establishing a brand for your goods or services, and registering that mark is an important part of protecting the mark from infringement. Our Boca Raton trademark lawyers will take the time to understand your business model, needs and goals and craft an appropriate strategy to protect your brand through trademark registration and other appropriate means.
Florida or Federal Trademark Registration?
Once you’ve created your trademark and are ready to register it, a key threshold question is whether to register it just in Florida or to register the trademark at the national level. Registering a mark with the State of Florida is easier, faster and less expensive, while registering nationwide provides more protection against potential infringing users and is generally the preferred approacch. A Boca Raton trademark registration attorney at Perkins Law can offer advice and counsel regarding which path you should pursue so that any step you take is consistent with the brand protection strategy for your company.
Trademark Registration in Florida – Chapter 495
Chapter 495 of Florida Statutes governs the registration and protection of trademarks in the State of Florida. The law defines a trademark to include “any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof, used by a person to identify and distinguish the goods of such person…” The Act also describes around a dozen characteristics of a mark that would make it unfit for registration in Florida. Understanding what can and cannot count for a mark is important from the outset to prevent wasted time and expense and help ensure the success of a registration application.
Goods and services are placed into different classes which match the classification scheme adopted by the USPTO. When submitting an application, the applicant must include a separate filing fee per class. An application must also be “accompanied by three specimens or facsimiles showing the mark as actually used.” The application is submitted for examination to the Florida Department of State, which may request additional information as part of its examination.
The timing of an application can be crucial. If the Department gets multiple applications for similar or confusingly similar marks, it gives priority based on the date of filing. But you want to be sure your application is in good shape before filing it, or you could lose more time by having an incomplete application tossed out during the examination period.
State law gives an applicant three months to reply or amend a rejected application and have it reexamined. This process can continue until the Department approves the application or makes a final refusal to register the mark, so long as the applicant continues to file an amendment or reply within the requisite three-month period.
Once granted, registration is good for five years and can be renewed for successive five-year periods, provided the applicant applies for renewal within six months of the expiration period for the current registration. The Boca Raton trademark registration services at Perkins Law can include maintenance filings and renewals to protect your brand and keep your trademark registration alive. A registered mark is a thing of value that can be assigned with the goodwill of the business, so keeping it active and enforcing trademark rights against infringers are valuable activities in and of themselves.
Trademark registrations in Florida can be canceled for a number of different reasons, including voluntary request, lack of timely renewal, or if the mark is found by a court to have been abandoned, granted improperly, obtained fraudulently, or other reasons, including that the mark has become generic. It is therefore essential for brand protection to keep a mark from becoming generic. Our Boca Raton trademark attorneys can help you walk that fine line between maximizing the exposure and use of your trademark while maintaining its distinctive nature.
Nationwide Trademark Registration – USPTO
An application for a national trademark registration goes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The USPTO process is more complicated than Florida trademark registration, although both applications are based on similar information. The technical term for applying to register a trademark with the USPTO is “trademark prosecution.” A Boca Raton trademark registration attorney at Perkins Law can advise you on whether Florida or USPTO registration is the appropriate move for your brand protection strategy. Either way, our firm is equipped to handle your trademark registration needs.
Help With Trademark Registration in Boca Raton
For help with trademark registration or trademark prosecution in Florida, other states or nationwide, call Perkins Law at 561-467-4001 to discuss your needs with a skilled and knowledgeable Boca Raton trademark attorney.