Most people understand of the numerous benefits of having a trademark registration on the Principal Register for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In fact, Online Trademark Name Search owners are urged by trademark attorneys to select distinctive marks that you simply can to be able to, upon handy in interstate commerce, be registered there and revel in numerous presumptions while validity, ownership, and notice. However, the Supplemental Register also has value, especially when the alternative is your own the question initially.

Before the primary advantages of being supplementally registered is discussed, you’ll want to understand that that your supplemental registration doesn’t 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 the source of the goods or services to which the mark pertains. Such placement does not afford the exclusive right on this the mark in commerce in connection with its identified services or goods. Equally important, it does not serve as prima facie evidence of the validity of the registered mark or of the trademark registrant’s ownership of the mark. Finally, it may an admission how the mark is not inherently distinctive.

While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s desire to be registered on the key Register, a supplemental registration has benefits of its own. In fact, some entities choose to have a brand that tells consumers what is actually always they are offering (e.g. Pizza Restaurant) as opposed for inherently distinctive mark (.e.g. Domino’s) that requires effort to create consumer recognition. Such marks are not going to warrant principal placement, meant for be supplementally outlined. After five years on the Supplemental Register, the mark may qualify for the key Register due to it 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 treaties.

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 has failed to acquire the requisite distinctiveness to be registered on where many deem as the preferred spot.