The 5-Step Guide to Registering Your Trademark in Florida

The 5-Step Guide to Registering Your Trademark in Florida

The intellectual property of your business is one of its most valuable assets, and one of the most common forms of IP is the trademark. Generally, a trademark is any symbol, word, design, or mark that is used by companies to assign an identity to their products or services. Like the Nike swoosh or the McDonalds’ golden arches, for example. The purpose of registering trademark is to distinguish your business from the rest and bring recognition to your product or service from the moment it is seen or heard by customers. It is for these reasons that all businesses must make sure to protect their marks to not only prevent another company from claiming it but to also uphold the integrity of their brand.

Although the overall process of registering a trademark in Florida is fairly straightforward, it is important that you take it very seriously and work side by side with an experienced trademark attorney to make sure you do not make any costly mistakes. Registered marks are granted legal protection against others who might try to steal them, use a similar mark, or deceit customers with counterfeit versions of your product. Additionally, there might be different things you will have to consider at both the state and federal levels of the law.

Here is a 5-step guide to registering your trademark in Florida:

1. Hire a Trademark Attorney

Since anyone can register a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), it is important to make sure that you have the help of an experienced trademark attorney. This is because there are many issues that can emerge during the process of registering a trademark that will affect the validity of your mark, and it might be difficult for you to solve every problem effectively, especially if this is the first mark you have ever attempted to register.

2. Identify Your Trademarks

Once you have hired the right attorney, the next step in any trademark registration is to make sure you have clearly chosen your mark as the identifier of your brand. You must make sure that the mark you choose to register is the one you want to stick with. Once you have made a decision on a mark, you will then have to determine whether it can actually be registered. In order to qualify for a trademark registration with the USPTO, a mark must:

1. Be used in commercial activities; and
2. Be unique and distinctive.

Although these two requirements may seem simple, they actually come with several legal concerns regarding how unique or distinct your mark has to be in order to qualify for registration.

Your Jurado& Farshchian, P.L. Trademark Lawyer will provide expertise during this part of the process to help you make sure the mark you register is as unique and strong as it needs to be, in order to ensure a successful application.

3. Conduct a Trademark Research

Before you actually attempt to file your application, it is crucial that you check whether the mark you intend to register is actually available and has not been taken by another company. The USPTO will reject any mark that comes with a high “likelihood of confusion” with any other mark that has been previously registered. Searching for similar marks and determining whether yours will hold up is a tricky process, so the guidance of an experienced attorney is more than crucial.

4. Prepare Your Application

After your mark is prepared and you have determined that it will not likely be confused with another mark in the USPTO database, you will have to move on to actually preparing your trademark application. The USPTO will require that you categorize your mark in one of two ways:

1. Used in commerce (your business is already using the mark); or
2. Intent to use (you intend to use the mark in the future).

Once this is done, you and your attorney will be allowed to follow the USPTO’s electronic application process, gather the required documents, and arrange for payment of any filing fees.

5. Submit Your Application

Once all the steps above have been taken care of, the final step is actually submitting your trademark application. Before you do, make sure to go over it carefully with your attorney, as many times as necessary, to make sure everything is presented the way you want it. After you submit your application, the USPTO will review your case and make a decision to either approve or deny your trademark registration.

At Jurado & Farshchian, P.L., our team of skilled and experienced Trademark Attorneys will handle your Florida Trademark application with the levels of proficiency and attention to detail you deserve. We have years of experience helping business owners register their trademarks and the list of satisfied clients grows every single day; let us add you to it!

To learn more about how we can help your business thrive, call us today at (305) 921-0440 or send us an email to Romy@jflawfirm.com to schedule an initial consultation.

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