Your company’s trademark is how your business is recognized. It symbolizes your company’s products, quality of work, and sets expectations for your customers. Your trademark becomes a reflection of your reputation and a reputation is something to be valued. For many businesses, registering their trademark is a necessary step in protecting yet another asset in their portfolio. Registering your trademark gives you added legal protection and puts would be infringers on notice making any legal action that may arise all the easier to defend. The Smith Firm is experienced in working with clients to decide how best to register their marks so that the inspection at the United States Patent & Trademark Office results in approval. You trademark is your reputation, protect it.
► What is a Trademark?
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.
► What is a Service mark?
A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. You will often see the words “trademark” or “mark” being used to describe both trademarks and service marks.
► What is the difference between a Trademark and a Service mark?
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or logo that is used to brand, identify, and distinguish a product. A service mark is a word, phrase, symbol or logo that is used to brand, identify, and distinguish a product. You will often see the words “trademark” or “mark” being used to describe both trademarks and service marks.
► How much does a Trademark cost?
The filing fee for a trademark or service mark depends on how many different marks you register and how many classes of goods or services you must claim for you mark. There are 3 different types of forms that can be used:
For more information on which form to use please visit the USPTO website.
► How long does a Trademark last?
Unlike copyrights or patents, a trademark can last indefinitely if the owner continues to use the mark to identify goods or services. The term of a federal trademark registration lasts for 10 years with 10 year renewal terms. You must file an affidavit of use and pay an additional fee between the 5th and 6th year after the initial registration to keep your trademark registration alive. You must also file an affidavit of use and pay a fee within a year before the end of every 10 year period. If the affidavit is missed, the trademark is cancelled. However, you may file the affidavit and pay the fee within 6 month grace period after the end of the 6th or 10th year.
In May of 2017, Amazon launched its Brand Registry Program designed to help Amazon sellers protect their brands from identity theft and trademark infringement. The Amazon Brand Registry is a set of tools that sellers use to accurately represent their brands by finding, reporting, and sharing information regarding potential violators. This gives them more control over Amazon product pages that use their brand names.
This applies to all sellers. Amazon sellers must register their trademarks in every country in which they do business. The following is a list of countries from which Amazon accepts trademark registrations:
In this post we’ll be covering How Amazon Brand Registry Works, What Information You Need to Sign How to Register a Trademark in the United States, How to enroll in Amazon Brand Registry, and What Makes a Brand Successful?.
Ultimately what is valuable to an Amazon Seller is their reputation. It is how they gain customer confidence and how they get listed at the top of the results screen. There are roughly 353 million products available on Amazon. I rarely scroll down far enough to find a seller listed on the second page of the search results.
If I see an “Amazon Choice” badge on a seller’s account, I am even more likely to click on that seller’s account. Amazon has a vested interest in making sure the items sold at the top of their lists always meet customer expectations. Those positions near the top of the screen are very valuable and a quality brand is how Amazon Seller’s stake their claim to the profits that can come from owning that space. Here in lies the reason behind Amazon Brand Registry.
Amazon Brand Registry works by providing powerful search tools that allow Brand Owners to monitor the vast Amazon world by allowing sellers to search for keywords, images, and lists of Amazon Standard Identification Numbers, or ASIN’s, in a simple and streamlined fashion. The Sellers are then able to report suspected violations through an easy to navigate, guided workflow.
Amazon Brand Registry also provides automated protections to proactively remove potential infringers and delete inaccurate information about an infringing brand. One of these tools is called Amazon Transparency.
Amazon Transparency is a product serialization service provided by Amazon to help prevent counterfeit products from reaching customers. Manufacturers must enroll each of their products in the service. This generates a unique transparency code that only Amazon can create. These codes are added to each product that a manufacturer produces. Amazon then verifies each transparency code before it is shipped. It doesn’t matter if the shipment is fulfilled by Amazon or a 3rd party seller. This ensures that only genuine products are received by customers. There is even a smartphone app that customers can use to verify that the goods they purchased are authentic.
For the purposes of this article I am going to assume that you already have an Amazon Seller’s Account. If not, click on this link for a Step by Step Guide on How to Create an Amazon Seller’s Account.
Here is what you are going to need in order to sign up for Amazon Brand Registry.
A company’s brand is what makes it stand out from the crowd. It represents everything they do to make their business a success. It is how their customers recognize them.
Trademark rights are property rights. They permit the owner the exclusive right to use the mark and indicate the source of the goods or services.
A trademark is generally defined as any name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image, or a combination thereof. A trademark distinguishes the products or services it represents from competition and protects the owner’s reputation.
A trademark can also be a device, brand, label, signature, letter, numerical, shape of goods, packaging, color or combination of colors, smell, sound, or movement. They key component is that the trademark is capable of distinguishing the goods and services of one business from those of another.
To register your trademark in the United States, you will need to fill out the application forms found on the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO’s) Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) found here: https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-application-process/filing-online/initial-application-forms
There are 3 different application forms you can use and the filing fees vary depending on which one you decided to choose. They are:
1. TEAS Plus - $225 per class
2. TEAS Reduced Fee (RF) - $275 per class
3. TEAS Regular - $400 per class
There are 45 different trademark classes. A list of classes can be found here: https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-application-process/searching-trademarks/get-ready-search-classification-and-design
It is very important to choose the correct class for filing your trademark. Choosing the wrong class can result in additional fees or the outright rejection of your application.
Once you decide on the appropriate class for your product or service, the next step is to do a clearance search to ensure that your trademark isn’t already in use by someone else. The USPTO will reject any application for a trademark that is likely to cause confusion with a mark already in use. For more information on how the USPTO decides what makes something likely to cause confusion, click here.
An effective search must be broad enough to find all the trademarks that are likely to cause confusion but narrow enough to limit the results to a manageable number of trademarks. An experienced trademark attorney can provide valuable assistance during this process.
Now that you have the right international class and performed an effective clearance search, you are ready to start filling out the USPTO’s application. Here are the steps to using TEAS:
The owner of a trademark can be an individual, a corporation, a Limited Liability Company, a partnership, or any other legally formed business. If a business is the owner of the trademark, you will use the business name as the applicant name on the form. Don’t forget to include the state in which the business is incorporated or organized.
The specimen shows how you actually use the mark in commerce in connection with your goods or services. The specimen is not a drawing. It could be a picture of your trademark on a label or tag that is attached to the goods. It could also be advertising or marketing material showing that your mark is being used in commerce.
If you are already using your trademark in commerce, you should file under Section 1(a) Use-in-Commerce basis.
If you are not yet using the trademark in commerce but have a bona fide intent to do so within the next 3 to 4 years, you should file under Section 1(b) Intent-to-Use Basis. Filing under Section 1(b) will require you to file a Statement of Use once you start using the trademark in commerce and pay an additional fee.
Here are the different fees associated with each application form:
TEAS Plus - $225 per class
TEAS Reduced Fee (RF) - $275 per class
TEAS Regular - $400 per class
If you are registering your trademark under more than one class, you will have to pay a filing fee for each class.
Once your application is submitted you can expect to hear absolutely nothing from the USPTO for at least 3 months. During this time, a USPTO examiner will review your application to ensure that it meets all of the legal requirements. It is not uncommon to receive an initial rejection of your application. These can be for a wide variety of issues which are discussed here. A rejection, however, is not the end of the road. An experienced attorney can help you overcome a rejection and get your application ready for final approval.
After your trademark is registered in each country in which you do business, the rest of the process is pretty straightforward. The following is a list of steps that will walk you through the enrollment process.
https://brandservices.amazon.com/eligibility#
Your brand name must have an active registered trademark for every country in which you sell that product.
You must provide the associated government registered trademark number so be sure to have it ready when you enroll.
You must provide a list of product categories in which your brand should be listed.
You will also need to provide a list of countries where your brand’s products are manufactured and distributed.
There is no clear answer as to what makes a brand successful.
There are certainly brands that have built their reputations overtime. They have provided quality service over many years and established themselves as reliable. You know what you are getting with this company. This is a company you can trust.
But then there are other brands that, for some reason, are captivating right from the start. Their logo has a “coolness” factor that we can’t put our fingers on but know it when we see it. It is as if they have harnessed some universal aesthetic quality from the ether and expressed it in such a way so that all but the haters among us can appreciate its value.
Whatever the reason for that value, one thing is certain, the owners of it must protect it. As Isabel Patterson said her book, The God of the Machine, “Theft presupposes ownership, an object must be property before it can be stolen.”
To protect the product of your work, you must claim it as your property. Otherwise, it is just an object in nature, free for anyone to take and use at any time. Amazon Brand Registry is how Amazon is enabling Sellers and Manufacturers to protect their property and reputations in the vast and ever changing Amazon world.
