A trademark is what sets one person's or company's goods and services apart. Trademarks are legally registered to prevent violation of owners' rights. It is important to maintain a trademark's proper registration and keep it valid.
Terms of Registration
You will have to record an affidavit of use between the 5th and 6th year after the initial registration of your trademark. In addition, you will be required to file the Affidavit of Use after every 10 years.
Pending vs. Granted
Terms of the trademark begin at the date of the trademark approval and not the application date. This procedure can take years to complete in order to confirm that there is no trademark violations. The trademark is said to be pending until it is finally approved, opening up the official period of registration.
Objections
People have the chance to file an objection explaining how your trademark violates their own businesses' trademarks. Formal objections should be filed in the Trademarks Journal within 30 days.
Grandfathered Terms
Existing trademark registrations are valid for a 10-year period. However, trademark registrations approved before November 16, 1989 are valid for a 20-year period.
Attorneys
It is always advisable to consult with a patent and trademark attorney before registering your trademark because of the legal issues involved and to ensure that your trademark has no violation issues. It can be demoralizing to find yourself embroiled in a legal battle after spending lots of money to register your trademark and establish your brand. An attorney may help you avoid such problems.
What Happens If You Break Copyright Laws?
Copyrights laws prevent the infringement of rights of original creative works including music, literature, fine art, and poetry. When a person comes up with an original piece of work, he/she has copyright rights to the piece of work. However, the rights are unofficial until they are registered. Registration is important because it helps protect copyrights. Registration officially verifies the work and offers a much bigger deal of legal significance than an unregistered copyright.
Civil Lawsuits
Although some copyright law infringements go unpunished or undetected, copyright holders have the right to sue and seek compensation from people who violate their trademark rights through a civil lawsuit. Lawsuits are usually served against people who have produced copies or benefited in one way or another through the use, distribution, or sale of copyright content. An infringement analysis can help determine if an individual's copyrights have been violated.