How to apply for a trademark:
When you come up with a logo, you file for that trademark under the United States Patent and Trademark office. You can fill out the application yourself at USPTO.gov.
If a seller has a problem with his or her application or if someone else has a similar mark in a similar category, you will receive an office action. An office action is the government’s negative action towards your application. We can help you address the office action.
A USPTO office action is a claim or an issue that’s brought to our clients’ attention by the USPTO in regards to their trademark applications. In one particular office action we addressed, the USPTO alleged that our client’s mark was merely descriptive, meaning it only describes the goods or services that the mark is associated with. Trademarks are not supposed to merely describe the product.
In order to get around a merely descriptive issue, you need to prove to the USPTO that the mark has acquired distinctiveness. In this case, we were able to draft a document that proved to the USPTO that our client’s extensive advertising, marketing and general use of the mark and commerce for over 5 years was enough that the market acquired distinctiveness and was thus not merely descriptive.
Acquired distinctiveness means that consumers have come to associate trademark in their minds with products or the services that you use under the trademark.
We won this case and our client’s trademark was approved.
Once the application is filed, it is assigned to a USPTO examiner and takes about 30 days. After that, an office action can be issued either right away or sometimes a few weeks down the line. Once responded to and dealt with, the total time for dealing with an application with or without an office action being issued can be anywhere between 9 to 12 months.
If you are a private label seller, you need to apply for a trademark immediately to get brand registry 2.0.