Most people know the of the numerous benefits of owning a trademark registration close to the Principal Register from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In fact, Online Trademark Public Search India owners are urged by trademark attorneys to select distinctive marks solution to to be able to, upon easily use in interstate commerce, be registered there and revel in numerous presumptions while validity, ownership, and notice. However, the Supplemental Register also has value, especially as soon as the alternative is your own the question when you’re getting started.
Before the advantages of being supplementally registered is discussed, should always understand that which a supplemental registration doesn’t provide. Marks frequently 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 the source of the goods or services to which the mark pertains. Such placement does not pay the exclusive right to use the mark in commerce in connection with its identified services or goods. Equally important, it does not serve as prima facie evidence belonging to the validity of the registered mark or of the trademark registrant’s ownership from the mark. Finally, it may an admission how the mark is not inherently distinctive.
While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s wish to be registered on the primary Register, a supplemental registration has primary advantages of 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) that needs effort to create consumer recognition. Such marks are not going to warrant principal placement, though they be supplementally licensed. After five years on the Supplemental Register, the mark may qualify for the main Register due going without running shoes having acquired distinctiveness. It is worth noting that both allow the owner to use the registered trademark symbol, sue in federal court, and profit by certain international treaties.
Thus, any registration with the USPTO is better than having no trademark registration at everything. While ultimately the Principal Register provides the most benefits and best protection, the Supplemental Register should be considered where an entity prefers what is likely to be a merely descriptive mark at the outset or didn’t acquire the requisite distinctiveness to be registered on where many deem as favored spot.