Logo Registration on the Supplemental Register

Most people are aware of the numerous benefits of owning a Trademark Agent in India registration close to the Principal Register of your United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In fact, trademark owners are urged by trademark attorneys to select distinctive marks in order to be able to, upon use in interstate commerce, be registered there and watch numerous presumptions because validity, ownership, and notice. However, the Supplemental Register also has value, especially as soon as the alternative is your own the question the first time.

Before the advantages of being supplementally registered is discussed, when you understand that that your supplemental registration does not provide. Marks frequently 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 supply of the goods or services to which the objective pertains. Such placement does not afford the exclusive right to use the mark in commerce in experience with its identified goods or services. Equally important, it does not serve as prima facie evidence of this validity of the registered mark or of the trademark registrant’s ownership of your mark. Finally, it may an admission how the mark is not inherently distinctive.

While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s try to be registered on the primary Register, a supplemental registration has primary advantages 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 with regard to an inherently distinctive mark (.e.g. Domino’s) demands effort to create consumer recognition. Such marks are not going to warrant principal placement, even though they be supplementally registered. After five years on the Supplemental Register, the mark may qualify for the main Register due to it having acquired distinctiveness. It is worth noting that both allow the owner to use the registered trademark symbol, sue in federal court, and take benefit from certain international treaties.

Thus, any registration with the USPTO is better than having no trademark registration at everything. While ultimately the Principal Register provides the best results and best protection, the Supplemental Register should be considered where an entity prefers what is likely a merely descriptive mark at the outset or did not acquire the requisite distinctiveness to be registered on where many deem as the preferred spot.