How To Trademark a Business Name in 8 Steps

What’s in a name? Well, if you’re a business owner, quite a lot. Your business name is a cornerstone of your brand identity and a direct line to your customers’ minds. A really good one can be a key differentiator in your industry, so much so that it becomes worth trademarking. A trademark provides legal protection for your brand elements, ensuring that those elements remain exclusively yours.

Trademarking your business name can have a range of advantages, from an edge in the marketplace to an added degree of legal protection. If you have a great business name, logo, or other brand elements, it’s worth knowing how to trademark a business name. This is your step-by-step guide.

1. Conduct a Comprehensive Trademark Search

Before you formally apply, you first have to make absolutely sure that your business name isn’t already in use or too similar to an existing trademark.

There are a number of ways you can do this:

• Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS): The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)’s federal trademark search engine allows you to search for active and inactive federal trademark registrations and applications. When using TESS, make sure to search not just for exact matches but also phonetic equivalents, misspellings, synonyms, and similar-sounding words.
• State Trademark Databases: Many states maintain their own trademark registries, particularly for businesses operating primarily within state lines.
• General Search Engines: A simple Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo search for your proposed name can bring up businesses, products, or services that might be using a similar name, even if they haven’t formally trademarked it.
• Social Media Platforms: Check major platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest to see if your desired name or close variations are already being used as usernames or brand pages

To get approved for a trademark, you’ll need to show your business name is truly unique, so you can save yourself time, money, and potential legal headaches by being thorough out of the gate.

2. Determine Your Trademark’s Strength

Not all business names are created equal when it comes to trademark protection. The strength of your chosen name directly impacts its registrability and the scope of protection it will receive. Trademarks are typically categorized along a spectrum of distinctiveness:

• Fanciful: Invented words with no meaning outside of their use as a trademark. Think “Kodak” or “Xerox.” These are considered the strongest type of trademark because they are inherently distinctive and unique.
• Arbitrary: Common words used in a completely unrelated context to the goods or services they represent. “Apple” for computers is a classic example. Like fanciful marks, arbitrary marks are strong because their meaning in the common lexicon doesn’t describe the products they identify.
• Suggestive: Marks that hint at the nature or quality of the goods or services without directly describing them. “Netflix” suggests internet-based flicks, but a consumer still has to make a little leap to get there. Suggestive marks are generally strong.
• Descriptive: Marks that directly describe a characteristic, quality, function, purpose, or ingredient of the goods or services. “Sharp” televisions describe picture quality, for instance. Descriptive marks are generally considered weak and are not registrable on the Principal Register of the USPTO unless they have acquired “secondary meaning.” Essentially, they’ve become so adopted and well-known that the general public associates the term with the brand.
• Generic: Common names for products or services are generally not trademarkable. You can’t trademark your car company, “Car Company.”

If you want to know how to trademark a business name, your best bet is with a fanciful, arbitrary, or suggestive name. Beyond names, you can also trademark distinctive logos, memorable slogans, unique sounds, and even specific colors. The same strength rules apply.

3. Precisely Identify Your Goods and Services

A crucial step in the trademark application process is precisely identifying the specific goods and services with which your business name will be used. This defines the scope of your trademark protection. Too broad, and the USPTO might reject you, too narrow, and you may not adequately protect your mark.

The USPTO uses an international classification system called the Nice Classification to categorize goods and services. There are 45 classes, with classes 1-34 for goods and 35-45 for services. When completing your application, you’ll need to select the appropriate class(es) and provide a detailed description of your offerings.

It’s not always clear what to pick and, in some cases, you might have to choose multiple. For instance, a coffee company might have to account for selling roasted coffee beans (Class 30) and coffee brewing machines (Class 11), and operating a coffee shop (Class 43). Each element of your business may require a different class and more precise description.

A great trademark is one that defines your offerings narrowly enough to avoid overlap with existing marks in unrelated fields, but broad enough to cover the full scope of your current and expected business activities.

4. Choose Your Filing Basis

Before filing your application, you must determine your “filing basis” – how you intend to use your trademark. The USPTO offers two primary bases:

• “Use in Commerce” (Section 1A): You’re already actively using your business name to sell or advertise goods. To register your trademark, you’ll need to provide a “specimen,” which is just an example of how you’re using the name or mark. That could be a product label, packaging, or just a screenshot of your website.
• “Intent to Use” (Section 1B): You have a business name or trademark that you love, but you haven’t started using it yet. If you file under “Intent to Use,” you’ll typically have 6-36 months to begin using the mark and submit a Statement of Use with a specimen to officially register your trademark.

5. Prepare and File Your Application

When you’re ready to file your application, the easiest way to apply is through the USPTO’s Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS). Filing online via TEAS is typically cheaper and faster than paper. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Applicant Information: Your legal name (or your business’s legal name), address, and contact information.
• Type of Mark: Specify if it’s a standard character mark, design mark, or a combined mark. If it’s a design or combined mark, you’ll need to upload a clear image of the logo/design.
• Goods and Services: The precise description of your goods and services, including the correct International Class(es).
• Filing Basis: Indicate whether you are filing based on “Use in Commerce” or “Intent to Use.” If “Use in Commerce,” you’ll need to upload a specimen.
• Drawing of the Mark: For a standard character mark, this is simply the typed name. For design or combined marks, it’s the image file.
• Fees: Pay the required filing fees, which vary depending on the number of classes you file for and the type of TEAS application. TEAS Plus is cheaper if you use pre-approved descriptions.

Make sure to carefully review all of your information before submitting since errors can lead to delays, additional fees, or rejection. It’s a good idea to work with a qualified trademark attorney if you’ve never gone through the process before to help you avoid common pitfalls and ensure the strongest application possible.

6. Track Your Application

After you file your application, you’ll typically receive a serial number. This is your unique identifier for tracking your application’s progress on the USPTO’s Trademark Status and Document Retrieval (TSDR) system.

About three to four months after filing, a USPTO examining attorney will be assigned to review your application. If there are any issues, the attorney will issue an “Office Action” detailing them so you can have a chance to fix them.

If your application makes it through the examination phase, it will be published in the Official Gazette, a weekly publication that gives third parties a 30-day window to oppose your registration. If there’s no opposition, or you overcome the opposition, then your application moves forward.

If you filed on an “Intent to Use” basis, the USPTO will issue a Notice of Allowance, giving you six months (or more, if you extend) to begin using your mark and submit a “Statement of Use” along with a specimen. If you filed on a “Statement of Use” basis, you’ll receive your Certificate of Registration, officially granting you federal trademark rights.

7. Ongoing Maintenance

You don’t just set and forget a trademark. To maintain your federal trademark registration, you have to file periodic declarations with the USPTO confirming that  you’re still using your mark. Failure to do so will result in the cancellation of your registration.

The primary maintenance filings are:

• Section 8 & 15 Declaration: Must be filed between the 5th and 6th year after your registration date. The Section 8 Declaration (Declaration of Continued Use) requires you to affirm that your mark is still in for the registered goods/services and provide a current specimen of use. The Section 15 Declaration (Declaration of Incontestability) is optional but highly recommended. If you’ve been using your trademark for five consecutive years without a successful challenge, this declaration can make your trademark incontestable.
• Section 8 & 9 Declaration: Must be filed between the 9th and 10th year after your registration date, and then every 10 years thereafter. The Section 8 Declaration again confirms continued use with a specimen, and the Section 9 Declaration renews your registration for another 10 years.

8. Monitor for Infringement

You, the trademark owner, hold the responsibility of monitoring and enforcing your trademark rights. The USPTO doesn’t police for trademark infringement. To monitor for infringement, you can use:

• Regular Trademark Searches: Periodically do the same searches you did before filing, including TESS, state databases, and general internet searches.
• Industry and Competitor Monitoring: Keep an eye on your industry, new business registrations, and competitor activities through industry newsletters and trade publications.
• Social Media Monitoring: Use social listening tools to track mentions of your brand name and variations across social media platforms.
• Professional Monitoring Services: Consider hiring a professional trademark watch service. These services automatically monitor new trademark applications, domain registrations, and other sources for potentially infringing marks and notify you.

If you discover infringement, you should:

• Send a Cease and Desist Letter: This formal letter from your attorney informs the alleged infringer of your trademark rights and demands that they stop infringing.
• Negotiation: You can sometimes reach an agreement through negotiation, especially for minor or accidental infringements. You may agree to allow a regional coffee company with a similar logo to use it in an area you don’t conduct business, for example.
• Litigation: If the infringement continues, you may need to file a lawsuit for trademark infringement.