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You dreamed up a clever new brand name, tag line, and/or kick-ass logo and now you want to execute on it and take action to make it a reality. What’s the best place to start? Here!!

So, before you spend hard earned dollars building your company web site, logo, customizing letterhead, business cards, or even a sign promoting your services, step back and consider two potential legal pitfalls about your brand:

Pay Now or Pay Way More Later
Registering a trademark gives the mark’s owner exclusive rights to use it nationally within the relevant class. The U.S. Trademark and Patent Office website enables users to do a free search for any mark. But this cursory search is just a start. Navigating trademark clearance issues is a skill developed over time. A new haircut seems like a simple task, but do you confidently sit in the chair of an awesome dentist prepared to get a great haircut?  Uhmm unless you feel adventurous, that is unlikely to end with the intended results.

Trademark clearance is a good analogy of a task best left to a professional. When done correctly, trademark searches can save you time, money and hassle later on. Consider that a worst case scenario results in finding yourself as the recipient of a cease and desist letter, a named party to a suit or the cost of rebranding your business and investing in replacing your signage, stationery, marketing materials and more.

What Will the Trademark Help Identify?
Recall that a registered trademark gives the mark’s owner exclusive rights to use it nationally within the specific class. This means that the protection depends on the class of goods or services the marks is used with. A registered mark for class 25 protects clothing while the same mark for class 16 protects paper goods.

This is the reason why there is DELTA airlines and DELTA faucets. Both marks protect different classes.  That is they are used in connection with completely unrelated services and customers of each company are not likely to be confused about either company’s respective services or products.

So the good news is that if the word mark you have selected is in use or registered for a different class of product/services than the one you anticipate using, there may be hope! But this is another one of those tricky scenarios were professional guidance can help you navigate the ins and outs of the process.

Bottom Line: An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.