Congratulations! You did the thing all too many business owners fail to do—you
registered your trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”).
Hopefully you hired a lawyer to conduct a proper clearance search before applying, but that’s
another issue for another day. Right now, you should be giving yourself a pat on the back
because, as you probably already know, a registered trademark is an incredibly powerful tool to
protect and leverage your brand. Now… how do you keep it?
PRIMER
First, a primer on what a trademark is. 15 U.S.C. §§ 1051 et seq (known as the Lanham Act)
defines it as:
“any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof—
(1) used by a person, or
(2) which a person has a bona fide intention to use in commerce and applies to register on the
principal register established by this chapter,
to identify and distinguish his or her goods, including a unique product, from those
manufactured or sold by others and to indicate the source of the goods, even if that source is
unknown.” 15 U.S. Code § 1127.”
