A Business Asset

Trademarks are important business assets and should be treated with the care due something so valuable. Businesses rely on their trademarks to identify their products or services and distinguish them from those of competitors. A trademark can be a word, symbol, logo or design or any combination of these.

Searching

Before adopting a trademark and/or service mark, it is recommended that a search be conducted for conflicting marks. Our office has the ability to search databases containing the records of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for active marks from 1884 to the present and records provided by the Secretary of State of each state in the U.S. for such conflicting marks. We can also access a directory of over 8.4 million businesses and professionals throughout the United States utilizing the Dun & Bradstreet Electronic Business Directory.

Searching Analysis

Most trademark searches done by other searching firms provide nothing more than a printout of dozens of hits from a standard word search. The real value in our trademark searches is the analysis and opinions of registerability we provide. We sort it all out and emphasize what's really important in determining whether a word trademark or service mark is registerable.

Our office recommends searching to determine the availability of trademarks and service marks before adopting and using your chosen mark. Considerable expense can be saved when you consider the costs involved in promoting your goods and/or services only to learn that using your mark may infringe the rights of others. If you wish for our office to have your trademark federally searched, you may do so online here.

Copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of "original works of authorship" including literary works, dramatic works, musical works, including accompanying works, pantomimes and choreographic works, pictoral, graphic and sculptural works, motion pictures and other audiovisual works, sound recordings and architectural works. Computer software has also become important copyright-protected works.

Copyright protection for work originally created on or after January 1, 1978 automatically attaches from the moment of creation and ordinarily given a term enduring for the author's life plus an additional 70 years after the author's death. These important rights should be registered with the Register of Copyrights as soon as practical to preserve all rights and remedies should infringement occur.

Click here if you wish for our office to register your copyright.