Subject: {FIRSTNAME},Making Your Trademark Unique Hello {FIRSTNAME}, Last time we learned about the benefits of trademarking. This time we will learn about making your trademark unique. Part 3 -------------------------------------------------- The key to a successful trademark is making it unique. In some fashion, you need to have a trademark that will stand apart from all others. You also need to have a trademark that will somehow jog the memory of those that see it so that they can know it. This is a complex consideration. For some, it means hiring a professional to design the trademark. Yet, you should also understand what it takes to make a trademark actually be qualified to be registered. As we have discussed, a trademark must be unique. If someone where to design a trademark like your own, you would want the United States Patent and Trademark Office to reject it. The same thing goes for you and your design needs. You need to develop and design a trademark that is completely unique and your own. It can’t be too similar to other people’s already registered trademarks. More so, it has to be unique enough so that your consumers don’t confuse it with other products or services on the market. This would make the trademark worthless. First things first, you want to insure that your trademark is unique enough to pass the trademark searches and to be legally able to be registered. There are some ground rules that are established by the USPTO that can help you to understand just how unique the trademark has to be and what’s required of it to be considered a unique trademark. When you apply for a registration for your trademark, the first thing that will be necessary is for a trademark search to be completed. For this to happen, an attorney will be assigned to investigate. The examining attorney, as they are called, will then search the United States Patent and Trade Office records to insure that your trademark is completely unique and not too close to another’s trademarking symptom or design. The attorney is looking at your trademark in comparison to others. If and when there is a conflict and your trademark is considered to be too close to that of another’s trademark, the application for your trademark is denied and refused by the examining attorney. If there is another application that is pending acceptance at the same time that yours is and each of you has a trademark that is similar, the trademark application that was submitted first will have the priority. You will be notified that there is another application pending that has a trademark that is similar to your own. In that, should that trademark not go through for some reason, then your trademark would be eligible to be filed. Should that trademark actually go through and become registered, then there is a conflict and your trademark would not be filed with the federal process. The examining attorney makes the decision regarding the issuance of how similar to two trademarks can be. Should there be enough similarity; the trademark filed second is not accepted. This can be quite difficult to take on considering you may have spent dollars and hours working on developing the right trademark for your specific business or product. For more information about Trademarking, please refer to my website Take Care,