Subject: {FIRSTNAME},The Details Of Trademarking Hello {FIRSTNAME}, Last time we learned about creating a trademark that works. This time we will learn about the details of trademarking. Part 5 -------------------------------------------------- First and foremost, most people want to know just how long the process of securing a trademark will take. They need to prepare for what lies ahead. Once you have submitted your trademark application, you will wait any place between a few weeks up to 4 to 5 months to hear anything back. About that far into the process the trademark application will be reviewed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s trademark attorney. Although you may have hired one to work with you on your application process, this one is working for the actual USPTO and therefore will not work with you directly. He or she will issue their decision about the trademark. If there is any reason for the attorney to deny your trademark, you will be alerted in an official action letter. In that letter he or she will let you know exactly why your trademark was rejected. From that point, you have six months to file a claim against it, or to fight it. IF you do not do so in that time frame, the application is then considered to be “abandoned” and is no longer valid. The most common reason that your trademark will be refused is that of a misunderstanding of what the trademark should be and what it is in comparison to other trademarks that are already in place with other companies. If your trademark is not unique enough to an already registered trademark, it will be denied. If your trademark is too generic, as we’ve discussed, it too could be rejected because of this. There are other reasons that it can be rejected as well such as an application that is not complete, an impropriate terminology or some other reasons that is described. You do have the right and the ability to fight this claim and you can find success in doing so. You should work with an attorney to make that claim, though, since you will want to insure that the process is successful if it is at all possible to make it successful. Once your application has passed through the USPTO’s trademark attorney’s hands, the next stop is called publication for opposition. Here, the trademark that is in question will be published in the “Official Gazette” which depicts all trademarks that are pending. Anyone that believes that they have a reason to fight you on your trademark will have thirty days from the time of the publishing of that trademark in the publication to object or to file for a longer period of time to object. This is rare as most will have no reason to do so at this point. Sometimes there is an objection because the opposed believes that the trademark in question will somehow damage their own trademark, perhaps being too similar. If this happens, there is a trial like occurrence in which a decision will be made to determine who has the right to use the trademark and its likely effect. Once you get through this marking, in which there are 30 days for others to disagree with your trademark, you pass into the Registration and Notice of Allowance phase of the process of trademarking. For those that are already using the trademark at this point in their commerce business, the USPTO will file the registration at that point and issue the registration certificate. If you have not been using the trademark up until this point, then you will have up to 4 additional months to file a State of Use statement. Once this is filed and approved, you will be given a registration certificate. Then, the trademark is yours! For more information about Trademarking, please refer to my website Take Care,