Unregistered Trademarks
I recently received the following question and thought it would be good to post on my blog, since it is a common one.
“Am I covered by trademark law if I do not include the ™ symbol on my Trade Marks, or if I do not register it through the U.S. Trademark Office?”
The answer is yes.
Although it is a very good idea to “Announce” your trademark through government agencies as well as use proper symbols on any media that contains your mark, it is not necessary in order to be protected. It is however harder to enforce a trademark if proper announcements havent been done. It basically comes down to being able to prove that you had an unique idea first and that the other party was aware that it was unique when the infringement occurred.
At least that is my interpretation of it.
Here is a site that covers the topic in detail. http://www.ggmark.com/guide.html
Here is one section that speaks about Unregistered Marks
Technically, providing notice of rights in unregistered marks is optional, but the prevailing wisdom is that such notice should be employed. Such notice is consistent with the rationale underlying proper trademark use, and enhances a mark’s source-identifying function. Notice of rights in an unregistered mark, consists of one of the following notations, usually appearing above, and to the right of, the mark in which rights are asserted:
(TM) for an unregistered trademark; and,
(SM) or ™ for an unregistered service mark.
