A trademark is a recognizable mark of a company’s assets, while a service mark is used for services. Registration offers benefits, and acquiring a service mark registration involves determining the appropriate type of intellectual property, searching existing trademarks, completing an application, and paying a fee.
A trademark is a fairly familiar concept and symbol that signals a recognizable mark of a company’s assets, i.e. its “trade”. Unregistered, a trademark is designated as . Registered, appears as. A service mark is a parallel use to a trademark, but is used for services rather than goods. In many of its explanations and definitions, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) actually uses the word trademark to refer to both trademarks and service marks.
The official definition of a service mark from the USPTO is “any word, name, symbol, device, or any combination, used or intended to be used, in commerce, to identify and distinguish the services of one supplier from the services provided by others and to indicate the source of the services “. While registration of a service mark is not required, it offers several important benefits, including proof of ownership, legal presumption of ownership, and the ability to use the filing as a basis for filing for foreign registration. An unregistered service mark is indicated by the abbreviation SM. The registered symbol is the same as the trademarks.
There are several steps to acquiring a service mark registration. The first is to determine that a service mark is the appropriate type of intellectual property to create and create a prototype brand. At the same time, you should search the USPTO database of trademarks and service marks to be aware of existing rights to various trademarks that may be similar to the proposed service mark. The “Design Search Code Handbook” categorizes trademark designs and assists in researching them, and research can be conducted at the Public Trademark Research Library in Alexandria, Virginia. If a potentially conflicting trademark is discovered, you can use the Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval (TARR) database to find out the current status of the trademark.
Once the design has been cleared as non-conflicting, the application should be completed. This includes a description of the service that the service mark is intended to represent. It also includes a clear representation of the service mark to be registered. There is a cost involved in the registration process, which can take several years. Often the services of an attorney are procured for service mark registration.
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