Quick Start trademark overview
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The most important step you should take before using a mark for your business is to conduct a reasonably thorough search of the trademarks already in use, and determine whether your proposed mark would infringe any of those prior marks. Failure to take this step could lead to a lawsuit and relinquishment of all your profits, payment of the other party's attorneys fees, and complete loss of your trademark. The process of determining whether or not your proposed mark is going to infringe an existing mark is called clearing a mark for use. This should be done prior to using your mark, and again before registering your trademark if there is a delay between the initial clearance and the registration.

Clearing a mark for use can be expensive, and possibly time consuming, if it is done properly. Or, clearance can be done cheaply and quickly. Because the process is inevitably frustrating, many businesses are enticed by the cheaper trademark services that make the whole process sound less complicated than it really is. Sometimes it makes sense to do a cheaper level of searching, but you are almost always far better off paying for a job well done. However, no matter how thorough of a search you purchase, you are always incurring some amount of risk that another company, too small to be picked up on the search report, has been using the mark before you. Even if small, they will have a prior right that will inhibit or prevent your use.

Not every mark can be protected in court or registered with the Trademark Office. Some marks are legally "stronger" than others. Marks receiving the most protection are called "fanciful" trademarks. They are words, or invented symbols, that have no other meaning except to serve as a trademark. Examples include KODAK, XEROX and REEBOK. Marks receiving the least protection are called "descriptive" marks. They describe the nature or qualities of the product being sold, for example RAPID PRINT, or QUIK STOP. These marks can sometimes be protected if they have acquired the requisite amount of market recognition through long-term and/or wide-spread use or advertising. 

The middle levels of protection between the strong protection given fanciful marks and the weak protection given descriptive marks include "suggestive" and "arbitrary" marks. These marks are protected immediately upon first use, regardless of how long or how broadly they have been used. Suggestive marks do not directly describe qualities of the underlying goods or services, but with a little imagination, one can make a connection. By contrast, arbitrary marks have no logical connection to the underlying goods or services whatsoever.

Generally speaking, you are infringing another mark if your mark and the original user's mark are similar enough to confuse consumers into thinking the two of you are one and the same source. This can happen if you're selling goods or services that are sufficiently related, and if there is sufficient similarity between the marks in terms of looks, meaning or pronunciation. In reality, there are about 13 factors and hundreds of cases that determine whether your mark is potentially infringing. For this reason, it is wise to have an attorney review your search results to determine whether your proposed mark may infringe an existing mark.

Famous marks such as McDONALDS, DISNEY, NIKE and PLAYBOY often receive far broader protection than marks that are not famous. Whereas a mark is generally not infringing of another mark when used in unrelated industries, that is not the case when it comes to famous marks. Famous marks in many cases, but not all cases, will be able to stop all commercial uses of their mark, regardless of whether consumers are likely to be confused by the two uses of that mark. So far, court determinations of what constitutes the requisite level of fame has been very problematic and unpredictable. Because fame is inherently a subjective concept and based on one's experience, it is especially difficult to predict whether or not a mark will be considered famous.

You don't need to register your trademark in order to receive protection or to stop others from using your mark. However, there are many advantages to registering a mark.  With a federal registration you will have certain advantages in court, and can stake a claim in your mark all across the country, even if you are not actually using the mark in a particular region. By contrast, protection of an unregistered mark extends only to the narrow geographic region in which the mark is actually used. Registering your trademark is a strong preventative measure against lawsuits; you will be harder to sue if others feel like you're infringing their mark, and companies are far less likely to adopt your mark as their own if they see your registration. Also, federal registration can provide advantages to those seeking trademark protection internationally. If you determine your mark is available for use, and decide to register it with the US Patent and Trademark Office, you will find that you must wait about nine months to one year (best case scenario) before your registration will issue. Registrations last for 10 years as long as you keep using the mark in commerce.

States typically provide cheaper and faster registrations than the federal government. However, state registrations don't enjoy nearly the same advantages as federal registrations. State registrations are generally used only by very small businesses with no plans for expansion.

There are many advantages to having an attorney prepare and file your application on your behalf. The primary reason for this is that the Trademark Office has an interest in keeping applications very narrowly defined, restricting your trademark rights, while attorneys are trained to push the envelope in the wording of the application in order to maximize your trademark rights. Experienced attorneys also know how to avoid the myriad of fatal mistakes in registration and preparation of specimens. Beware of non-attorney services that prepare applications for registration. They may be appealing because they are cheap. But they're really not doing much for you, since you could almost as easily apply on your own, and are likely to have the same success.

Your registration can be renewed in 10 year intervals. However, between the fifth and sixth years after your initial registration, you also need to file statements with the Trademark Office in order to keep your mark in force.

All trademark owners have a duty to police and enforce their own trademarks. Failure to do so can result in abandonment of your rights in a mark. Watch services can be very helpful in this regard.

While it is permissible to let others use your trademark, you must always keep control over its use, and you are well advised to have an attorney draft a trademark licensing agreement in every such instance.

Only federally registered marks can use the ® symbol. All other marks can either use the ^tm or ^sm symbols. Use the ^tm for the sale of goods and ^sm for the sale of services. In so doing, you're staking your claim of right in the mark

Trademark law is one of the most subjective and complex areas of law today. For this reason, trademark disputes can often have surprising endings from unexpected court decisions or unexpected rejections from the Trademark Office. You must be willing to accept some amount of risk, and a great deal of frustration in order to create & preserve a strong trademark into the future. The rewards for doing so are substantial. A trademark is often considered a business's most valuable asset.