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How much time and money does it take to create a brand? Countless hours and thousands in marketing, website and social media creation, and product development.
How easy is it to lose a brand? One cease-and-desist letter, followed by the threat of a trademark infringement lawsuit.
Before you ever get started with creating a business under a name-you-love-and-just-have-to-have, if you want to avoid wasted time, lost money, and the threat of a lawsuit, you should conduct a clearance search of possibly similar trademarks owned by others. Why is this important? If you “take” the trademark of someone else for yourself, the risks are significant. You could be forced to abandon it and have to pay hefty damages for infringement, rebranding and attorney fees (despite the energy, time and money it took to get it).
The purpose of a trademark clearance search is to assess the risk of the likelihood that your intended brand elements (business name, product names, logos) will be associated with another active company. A Rockridge® clearance report also identifies hurdles to registration, and mitigates risks that you might face after trademark application filing.
To conduct a proper clearance search, you can either search for yourself or hire a firm — like Rockridge® — to expertly assist you. Our base clearance search and report takes an average of 6 hours to complete, while our enhanced clearance search can take up to three days.[1]
When conducting a clearance search, it’s important to not only search the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) public database, but include a search of state registered trademarks and unregistered (common law) marks, such as web domains, social media, and the web. Unregistered marks may not be listed a database, but may still prevent you from having brand security if utilized in your area of commerce first.
There is a certain amount of subjectivity involved with clearance searches, due to the nature of trademark law. Trademark law is the law of confusion, i.e., trademark applications may be refused registration and marks may be accused of infringement if they are similar enough to other marks to cause confusion as to source identification and/or business association between mark holders. Confusingly similar marks are not just marks that are just phonetically similar, but those that have one-letter or one-word differences, rhyming syllables, synonyms, etc. to other marks. The team at Rockridge® has expansive experience in working with trademarks and knows just where to draw the line.
If you would like to learn more about the benefits of a registered trademark, check out this article: Benefits of a Registered Trademark.
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[1] We utilize a third-party search agency to report exact and partially-exact matches of your conceptualized trademark to common law (unregistered) company and app trademarks, and registered trademarks within the PTO and other international databases.
About RVL®
Rockridge Venture Law® is a certified B Corp law firm embracing the mantra of technology lawyers for good. Rockridge® services include corporate, intellectual property, litigation, M&A, privacy, technology, and venture capital law. Rockridge has been recognized as a B Corp Best for the World and Real Leaders Top 150 Impact Company, and has been featured by Conscious Company Magazine, Forbes, and other top media focused on industry leaders in impact and innovation.
The Rockridge team has worked with Grammy winners, Nobel Prize winners, and world champion athletes to create and monetize distinctive intellectual property assets. Rockridge clients include founders, investors, and multinationals scaling disruptive technologies and iconic brands. Rockridge is headquartered in Tennessee, with satellite offices in Durham, New Haven, and New York.
We’re Building Today’s Company for Tomorrow’s Economy® by leading clients through the dizzying array of information controls, by helping them to develop and monetize proprietary assets, and by enabling their impactful products, programs, and principles.
See case studies on how we’ve helped transformative companies at Rockridge Case Studies.
