Hallmark Registration on the Additional Register
Most people understand of the numerous benefits of owning a trademark registration close to the Principal Register of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In fact, Online Trademark Application India owners are urged by trademark attorneys to select distinctive marks that you simply can to be able to, upon use in interstate commerce, be registered there and savor numerous presumptions since validity, ownership, and notice. However, the Supplemental Register also has value, especially as soon as the alternative is beyond the question at the beginning.
Before the advantages of being supplementally registered is discussed, you’ll want to understand that that your supplemental registration doesn’t provide. Marks are often relegated to the Supplemental Register because, at the request of the USPTO examining attorney, the marks are merely descriptive and therefore not a distinctive identifier of the source of the goods or services to which the mark pertains. Such placement does not spend the money for exclusive right added with the mark in commerce in connection with its identified goods or services. Equally important, it does not serve as prima facie evidence from the validity of the registered mark or of the trademark registrant’s ownership of this mark. Finally, it’s an admission how the mark is not inherently distinctive.
While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s desire to be registered on the key Register, a supplemental registration has benefits of its own. In fact, some entities choose to have a brand that tells consumers what is actually always they are offering (e.g. Pizza Restaurant) as opposed to an inherently distinctive mark (.e.g. Domino’s) that requires effort to create consumer recognition. Such marks are not going to warrant principal placement, even though they be supplementally outlined. After five years on the Supplemental Register, the mark may qualify for the principal Register due there having acquired distinctiveness. It is worth noting that both allow the owner to use the registered trademark symbol, sue in federal court, and leverage on certain international treaties.
Thus, any registration with the USPTO is better than having no trademark registration at all. While ultimately the Principal Register provides the best results and best protection, the Supplemental Register should be considered where an entity prefers what may be a merely descriptive mark at the outset or didn’t acquire the requisite distinctiveness to be registered on where many deem as the preferred spot.
