Most people are aware of the numerous benefits of owning a trademark registration in regards to the Principal Register from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In fact, trademark registration india online owners are urged by trademark attorneys to select distinctive marks that you simply can to be able to, upon handy in interstate commerce, be registered there and enjoy numerous presumptions while validity, ownership, and notice. However, the Supplemental Register also has value, especially as soon as the alternative is out of the question initially.
Before the great things about being supplementally registered is discussed, it is important to understand that that your supplemental registration doesn’t provide. Marks are often 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 pay the exclusive right to use the mark in commerce in a connection with its identified services or goods. Equally important, it does not serve as prima facie evidence of the validity of the registered mark or of the trademark registrant’s ownership within the mark. Finally, it may be an admission how the mark is not inherently distinctive.
While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s hopeful registered on the principal Register, a supplemental registration has great things about its own. In fact, some entities choose to have a brand that tells consumers what everyone they are offering (e.g. Pizza Restaurant) as opposed for inherently distinctive mark (.e.g. Domino’s) that requires 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 main Register due to it having acquired distinctiveness. It is worth noting that both allow the owner to use the registered trademark symbol, sue in federal court, and leverage on certain international agreements.
Thus, any registration with the USPTO is better than having no trademark registration at everything. While ultimately the Principal Register provides the most benefits and best protection, the Supplemental Register should be considered where an entity prefers what usually a merely descriptive mark at the outset or has failed to acquire the requisite distinctiveness to be registered on where many deem as favored spot.