Just how do your customers find you? By an address? A website? A placard on a grocery cart? Customers find businesses because of a source identifier called a trademark. Trademarks are the fingerprints of commerce. Judgement on quality is one important aspect of a trademark. A person who identifies a superior product versus another product knows the source of the superior product by its trademark. Trademarks are a critical piece of a business’ intellectual property.
How do you go about getting a trademark or service mark? How do you avoid the dreaded “cease-and-desist” letters? The first thing you have to do is to determine whether your trademark conflicts with current marks being used in the marketplace. It is not as simple as typing in a word in the USPTO trademark research database, TESS. For example, an trademark examiner search for the word juicy would look like this: *j{v:2}?{”scz”}*[bi,ti]. This type of search is called “pattern matching” and it will be explained and covered in the workshop. When you research your mark, you will need to consider similar sounding words, meaning, foreign equivalents, transposition of words, synonyms, design, abbreviations and more! There are also other ways to protect a mark; on the state level and by common law.
The Wright State University Libraries’ Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) is offering a free trademark workshop for beginning entrepreneurs and small businesses. The workshop is Saturday, March 21, 10:30am-1:30pm in Room 241 of the Paul Laurence Dunbar Library on the WSU campus.
Designed for those with little to no knowledge about intellectual property marks, the workshop will review trademark basics, including the differences between federal, state and common law marks. The mechanics of searching registered marks will be demonstrated using the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Web site and the USPTO trademark database TESS. A hand’s on portion will allow participants to practice some of the skills learned during the workshop. The hand’s on will also include how to setup a ”MyUSPTO” account. A TEASPlus application filing will be demonstrated. Evidence of use and specimens will also be explained.
Seating for the workshop is limited. For more information, contact Ran Raider, government and history librarian for the University Libraries, at ran.raider@wright.edu or by calling (937) 775-3521.
Register online at: https://calendar.libraries.wright.edu/event/6369008
In 2000, the WSU Libraries were designated a Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The PTRC is a regional public outreach program supported by the USPTO.