How To Trademark Your Brand: Process and Key Considerations

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Your brand name, logo, and messaging likely count among your most valuable business assets. Registering a trademark establishes your legal rights over these identifiers and can help protect your brand identity from competitors using the same name or similar branding.

While some small businesses rely on common-law trademark protection—limited rights that arise automatically when you first use a brand mark in commerce—registering a federal trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) offers broader legal protection and stronger trademark rights nationwide. Here’s what you need to know. 

What is a trademark?

A trademark is a type of intellectual property (IP) protection for brand elements—words, symbols, designs, or phrases—that identify and distinguish a company’s goods or services. 

For ecommerce companies, trademarks can cover business names, product names, taglines, or logos associated with a company’s business identity. Service-based businesses may instead register a service mark—a subtype of trademark that protects branding tied to services rather than physical products. A consulting firm’s name, a podcast network’s logo, or a software platform’s brand could all qualify. 

Typically, you register your trademark at a government office. In the United States, trademarks are registered through the USPTO, which grants nationwide exclusive rights to use the mark for specified goods and services. For many businesses, safeguarding that intellectual property is an important long-term decision for protecting their business identity.

Registered trademark vs. common-law trademark protection

You can obtain common-law trademark protection—essentially informal protection—simply by using a trade name in commerce. That means introducing your product with its name and logo into the market. Unless you’re violating a previously registered trademark, your common-law rights are meant to protect your brand. 

However, common-law rights are geographically limited—usually to the area where the mark is actively used, since they arise from actual use in a specific market rather than nationwide registration. For online businesses selling across the country, that narrow protection can be a problem. It may not always be clear to courts or regulators that you’ve established sufficient recognition in every area where you sell.

Federal trademark registration, by contrast, gives nationwide notice of ownership and even international recognition under certain treaties like the Madrid Protocol. It also allows the trademark owner to pursue legal action in federal court if someone infringes on the mark. Because registration creates a public record of ownership across the US, it makes it harder for competitors to adopt confusingly similar names. If you’re planning to scale across states or internationally, trademark registration can turn your brand elements into protected, valuable assets. 

What can you trademark?

Not every word or phrase can be registered as a trademark. In general, a mark must be distinctive enough to identify a specific company’s goods or services. A name like “Nike” or “Shopify” qualifies as a trademark, but generic terms like “running shoes” or “online shopping” typically don’t.

Here’s what’s trademarkable, and what isn’t:

Trademarkable

You may be able to trademark:

• A sufficiently distinct brand name

• A company logo

• A slogan or tagline

• A product line name

• A standard character mark (text-only trademark that protects a brand name regardless of how it’s displayed)

These elements signal your business identity and help consumers distinguish your products or services from competitors and other businesses.

Not trademarkable

Some things generally can’t be trademarked:

• Generic terms (e.g., “paper” or “bicycle,” on their own)

• Descriptive phrases that merely describe the product or service (e.g., “cleaning service”)

• Marks that are confusingly similar to an existing trademark

• Names already registered in the same class of goods or services

If another company has already registered a similar name or the same name, your application could be rejected during the trademark application process. To check availability, search the USPTO database through the agency’s website, which provides document retrieval tools and a search engine. Reviewing live registrations helps ensure your proposed trademark doesn’t conflict with existing marks.

How to trademark your brand

1. Research existing trademarks
2. Prepare and file your trademark application
3. Receive an examination by the USPTO
4. Wait for publication
5. Receive a notice of allowance or registration

Registering a trademark with the USPTO involves several steps:

1. Research existing trademarks

Before submitting a trademark application, search the USPTO database to check whether an existing trademark already covers your brand name. If another business holds a registration in the same class of goods or services—categories like “Clothing,” “Software/Electronics,” or “Entertainment”—your application may be denied. You can search a full list of classes through the USPTO’s online ID Manual.

A thorough search beforehand helps avoid wasted filing fees, delays in the registration process, and potential legal trouble.

2. Prepare and file your trademark application

Next, submit a trademark application through the USPTO website. You’ll need to provide:

• The trademark name

• The goods or services associated with the mark

• The filing basis (whether you’re currently using the mark or are planning to)

• Information about the legal entity filing the application (company or individual name, mailing address, etc.)

You’ll also need to pay the filing fee and other required fees, which vary depending on the number of product or service classes attached to the mark, and whether additional USPTO surcharges might apply. As of January 2025, the USPTO charges a base application fee of $350 per class for most electronic trademark applications, with additional fees added for translation of non-English filings, paper (non-digital) filings, or incomplete filings, for example.

3. Receive an examination by the USPTO

After submission, a USPTO examining attorney reviews your application for compliance with trademark law and checks for conflicts with existing registrations. The first substantive review typically happens in about four to five months, while average total application processing time is around 10 months. 

If the examining attorney raises issues—known as an office action—you’ll need to respond within a specified time frame to address discrepancies or provide additional information. Once the examining attorney approves the application, the mark moves forward in the registration process.

4. Wait for publication

Once approved, the mark is published in the Trademark Official Gazette. The publication date triggers a 30-day window during which other parties may challenge the application. If another person or company believes the mark infringes on their existing trademark rights, they can file an objection with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. 

If an objection is deemed credible and moves forward, it can lead to a full trademark trial to determine whether the new mark can be registered or the existing mark takes priority.

5. Receive a notice of allowance or registration

If your mark goes unopposed, the USPTO will either:

• Issue a notice of allowance (for intent-to-use filings, where the mark has not yet been used in commerce); or

• Issue a registered certificate (for marks already in use) 

For intent-to-use filings, you’ll need to submit a statement of use confirming the mark is active in commerce within six months of receiving the notice of allowance. If you need more time, you can submit an extension request, which may involve additional fees.

Once registration is complete, the mark becomes a registered mark, granting nationwide exclusive rights and broader legal protection than common-law rights provide.

Considerations before trademarking your brand

• Common reasons for rejection
• Hiring a lawyer vs. doing it yourself
• Maintaining your brand’s trademark
• Limitations of trademark law

Before starting the process for registering your trademark, evaluate the following factors: 

Common reasons for rejection

The USPTO examiner may reject an application on several legal grounds. One of the most common reasons for rejection is similarity to an existing trademark in the same class of goods or services. If the examiner raises concerns about consumer confusion, you may be denied. Marks that are overly descriptive or generic can also be rejected. A company selling coffee, for instance, likely couldn’t trademark “Fresh Coffee.”

Applications may also be denied for procedural reasons like incomplete filings, missing documentation, or failure to respond to an office action. If your application is denied, you can appeal the decision to the appeal board.

Hiring a lawyer vs. doing it yourself

You can complete the trademark application process yourself through the USPTO website or work with a trademark attorney. An expert lawyer can help conduct preliminary clearance searches—often called “knockout searches”—and respond to office actions from the examiner. For applicants based outside the United States, the USPTO requires all trademark applications be handled by a US-licensed attorney.

However, hiring a lawyer adds costs on top of the USPTO’s filing fees. For many small businesses, the decision comes down to the complexity of the mark and the risk of conflict with competitors.

Maintaining your brand’s trademark

Obtaining a registered trademark is the first step—maintaining it requires periodic filings with the USPTO. 

Between the fifth and sixth year after registration, you must submit documentation confirming the mark is still in active use. Failure to file can result in cancellation—commonly called a “dead trademark”—which frees the mark for registration by another entity.

You should also continuously monitor the market for potential infringement. If another company starts using a confusingly similar trade name, you may need to pursue legal action to protect your trademark rights. You can hire a law firm to do this, or employ some monitoring tech. AI-powered platforms like Corsearch, Markify, and CompuMark (Clarivate) can scan global registries, detect similar marks, and send you real-time alerts for potential infringements.

Limitations of trademark law

Although trademark registration provides legal protection in certain contexts, it has limits:

• It only covers branding. Trademark law doesn’t apply to creative works (which are copyrightable) or product designs (patentable).

• It doesn’t block every similar use. A registered trademark protects branding tied to specific goods or services. Another company may legally use the same word if it operates in a completely different industry.

• Common-law rights still apply. Another business that used a mark first may retain common-law rights without registering, even if you register the same mark later.

• Trademark law is territorial. A USPTO registration protects your mark in the US and countries party to certain IP treaties, but not in non-signatory countries. Notable examples of non-signatories to the Madrid Protocol are South Africa and Hong Kong.