Most people know the of the numerous benefits of having a trademark registration within Principal Register from the United States Patent and Trademark Attorney in India Office (USPTO). In fact, trademark owners are urged by trademark attorneys to select distinctive marks in a position to be able to, upon easily use in interstate commerce, be registered there and watch numerous presumptions since validity, ownership, and notice. However, the Supplemental Register has the benefit of value, especially when the alternative is your own the question when you’re getting started.
Before the benefits of being supplementally registered is discussed, it is important to understand that that your supplemental registration does not provide. Marks occasionally 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 services or goods to which the potential pertains. Such placement does not afford the exclusive right also included with the mark in commerce in connection with its identified services or goods. Equally important, it does not serve as prima facie evidence of this validity of the registered mark or of the trademark registrant’s ownership within the mark. Finally, it may an admission that the mark is not inherently distinctive.
While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s try to be registered on the principal Register, a supplemental registration has great things about its own. In fact, some entities choose to have a brand that tells consumers what this is they are offering (e.g. Pizza Restaurant) as opposed a good 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 licensed. After five years on the Supplemental Register, the mark may qualify for the primary Register due with out 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 agreements.
Thus, any registration with the USPTO is better than having no trademark registration at completely. While ultimately the Principal Register provides the most benefits and best protection, the Supplemental Register should be considered where an entity prefers what is probably a merely descriptive mark at the outset or did not acquire the requisite distinctiveness to be registered on where lots of deem as favored spot.