You have started the journey of starting an e-commerce business, and now you are here, educating yourself on trademark, its importance and steps that will lead you to having the e-commerce business of your dreams. Some sellers may state that this is a mind-numbing and tiring process, and in fact, they’re not that far from the truth.
If you don’t have a skilled and reliable partner, e-commerce business formation can be the worst and darkest part of your life. However, we at Prestige Auditors don’t want you to go through all the blood, sweat, and tears to have a profitable business. This can be fun and more enjoyable with us, with a team who knows all the ins and outs of this industry!
In a previous blog, we talked about trademark and its benefits. But how can you register a trademark, and therefore, be shielded from the risk of infringements? Before the actual process, let’s elaborate on its meaning, its real definition.
If you don’t know, United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an important figure in this entire trademark game, which is why the following sentence is quoted right from the USPTO: “A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.” So, as a tool, trademark helps you protect you and your business from the ones who lack creativity and imagination.
Step 1
As we said, the USPTO is an important figure, and you’ll understand why. For the first step towards registering a trademark, you will need to do some research. Before registering a trademark, you should make sure no other business with a registered trademark has the same or even similar name to yours. Yes, there are thousands of names, and yours can coincide with one of them. If you are having problems with this, go and check our blog about choosing a business name. Checking this won’t take long, because all the information is located in the USPTO database.
There is also a chance that some businesses have the same name as the one you were thinking of, but haven’t registered a trademark. You won’t be able to check this in the USPTO databases. However, there are many websites that can help you with that.
These two should be checked and confirmed before moving on to the next step.
Step 2
We know that the previous step is somewhat boring, and you are dying to see the registered trademark, your shield that acts like a real body armor. But “research is creating new knowledge,” isn’t it? Now, when you are done with all the research stuff, it’s time to submit your application for trademark registration, which should be properly organized and include all the necessary information. Some sellers work with lawyers in order to ensure that everything is where it should be.
IMPORTANT: United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) may want you to provide supplementary information, and other adjustments in your application. Your trademark application is most likely to succeed, and soon you will have a registered trademark. However, sometimes, other businesses can find that registering your trademark will harm them. In such cases, USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board will be waiting for you to meet all the challenges together and fix the issue.
As you already understood, trademark is vital for the success of your e-commerce business, especially when the online industry has quite a few competitors. We at Prestige Auditors think that the process of setting up an e-commerce business should be followed by registering a trademark, in order to make your business money-spinning and successful.
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