A trademark is anything that tells a customer where a product or service actually comes from.
That is the whole definition, and it is worth sitting with. A trademark does not protect your idea, your business plan, or the work you put in. It protects the signal customers use to find you again — the name on the label, the logo on the box, the sound at the front of the trailer.
Most confusion about business name trademark protection starts here. Forming "Riverside Coffee LLC" gives you an entity by that name in one state. It gives you no enforceable right to stop someone opening Riverside Coffee Co. two states over, or registering Riverside Coffee at the USPTO before you do.
You don't own it until you file it.
Four different legal tools. Founders routinely buy one and assume they got another.
| Tool | What it protects | What it will not do |
|---|---|---|
| Trademark | Names, logos, slogans, and other source identifiers, for the goods and services you sell | Protect the product itself, or the creative content inside it |
| Copyright | Original creative expression — writing, photography, music, code, design | Stop a competitor using a confusingly similar brand name |
| Patent | Inventions and functional designs | Anything to do with what you call the invention |
| LLC / Corp | Your liability, your tax posture, your entity name in one state's registry | Give you any trademark right at all. This is the mix-up that costs the most |
Common law rights · unregistered
What you get by just using the name
- Rights limited to the geography you actually sell in
- No public record — you prove your usage history every single time
- Slow and expensive to enforce against a copycat
Federal registration
What the USPTO certificate adds
- Nationwide presumption that the mark is yours
- A public record that deters conflicts before they start
- Burden of proof shifts to the other side in a dispute
- Access to Amazon Brand Registry and most marketplace takedown tools
If it identifies the source of what you sell, it is a candidate. Four types carry almost every filing.
Word mark
Names, taglines
A business name, product name, or slogan in plain characters. Covers the words whatever font or colour you use them in.
Design mark
Logos, symbols
Protected independent of any words attached. The golden arches stand alone, with or without "McDonald's" nearby.
Trade dress
Look and feel
Packaging or product appearance, once distinctive enough to signal one source. Tiffany's blue. The Coca-Cola bottle.
Sound mark
Audio signatures
Rarer, but real. The MGM lion's roar and the 20th Century Fox fanfare are both registered.
Trademark eligibility · the fast filter
A mark is eligible when it is (1) used in commerce, or genuinely intended to be, (2) distinctive rather than merely descriptive of the goods, and (3) not confusingly similar to a mark already registered for related goods. Miss any of the three and the application is a refusal waiting to happen — which is what the next two chapters are about.
Trademark strength runs on a five-point scale. Where your name lands decides whether it registers at all, what it costs to defend, and how wide a lane you get.
Tier 05 · Strongest
Fanciful
USPTO posture
Verdict
Cost of defending it
Reach for fanciful or arbitrary if you can
It is the name most likely to clear the USPTO without a fight and the easiest to defend once it is yours. If there is a real business reason to lean descriptive — customers understanding what you do at a glance — that is a legitimate call. Just know what you are trading away going in, not after an office action tells you.
Worth avoiding on principle
- Names that just describe what you sell
- Geographic terms — "Michigan Auto Parts"
- Names built mostly on a surname — "Smith's Coffee"
- Words like "best" or "premium" doing your marketing
Why this matters before you file: the name your marketing team loves and the name an examiner will approve are not always the same name. Founders come to me after the merch is printed. By then, changing course costs a rebrand instead of a filing fee.
A trademark search is not a spelling check against one database. It is a judgment call about who could stop you.
Level one
Knockout search
Fast pass through the USPTO register for identical and near-identical marks in your classes. Free to run yourself in the USPTO's search tool. It catches the obvious collision, and it is worth doing the day you shortlist a name.
What it misses: phonetic equivalents, translations, marks with different spelling and the same commercial impression, and anyone with unregistered rights.
Level two
Full clearance search
The USPTO register plus state registrations, business registries, domains, marketplaces, app stores and common-law use that never got filed but can still block you — read against the likelihood-of-confusion standard rather than a keyword match.
What you are buying: the answer to "should I file this at all," which no database returns on its own.
The standard you are searching against
Not "did someone use my exact name." The test is whether a customer would reasonably think two things came from the same source. Same name, wildly different lane, usually no conflict — Delta the airline and Delta the faucet company coexist. Same name, adjacent lane, that is where it gets contested.
The USPTO's free search tools are genuinely useful and worth knowing about. What they do not do is tell you whether the name you are about to file is a good idea, or surface the conflict sitting one step outside the terms you thought to search. That judgment is the actual job of a trademark attorney.
Registering the name does not mean you own the word. It means you own it for what you actually sell.
Forty-five international classes cover every category of goods and services. Your registration is only as strong as the goods and services you listed when you filed — expand into a new product line later and that expansion is a new clearance question, not an assumption. Wrong or missing classes are among the most expensive mistakes to fix after filing.
Advertising & business
Retail and online stores, marketing services, consulting, business operations.
Education & entertainment
Courses, coaching, media, events, publishing, podcasts.
Clothing & apparel
Garments, footwear, headwear — the class most apparel brands live or die in.
Beauty & cosmetics
Skincare, haircare, fragrance, cleaning preparations.
Segarra IP files across all classes · these four are where most of the practice sits
Four steps, in order. Skipping one is where the expensive mistakes happen.
Clear the name
Knockout search first, then full clearance if the name survives it. USPTO register, state registrations, and common-law use that never got federally filed but could still block you.
Pick the classes
List what you sell today and what you are about to sell. Each class is a separate fee and a separate scope of protection — precision here is cheaper than an amendment later.
Prepare the drawing and the specimen
Two different things, and mixing them up is a quiet, common mistake. The drawing is how you claim the mark: standard character, which covers the words in any font or colour, or special form, which locks the exact stylization. The specimen is proof you are using it — a photo of the real product for goods, usually a screenshot of the offering page for services. USPTO formatting rules on both are strict.
File the application
On a use-in-commerce basis if you are already selling, or intent-to-use if you have not launched. File the name and the logo as two separate applications: a combined mark protects that exact combination, so a rebrand starts the logo protection over. Filed separately, the name survives every new logo you ever run.
The application asks. Most founders have not thought about it yet.
File in your own name personally and you are personally on the hook if a dispute comes up — and moving the mark into an LLC or corporation afterwards is its own paperwork problem, not a quick fix. Most founders are better off with the business entity as owner. If the entity exists, it is usually the right applicant. If it does not exist yet, that is a conversation to have before filing.
A five-minute decision at filing. A much longer one to unwind.
Realistic total: 8–14 months for a clean, unopposed application. Anyone promising same-week registration is not being straight with you.
Application filed
Your application enters the USPTO queue and gets a serial number.
Examination
An examining attorney reviews the mark for conflicts and compliance. The longest single wait in the process.
Office action, if one issues
Not every application gets one. You have three months to respond, extendable once for a fee.
Notice of allowance → statement of use
Issued once the mark clears examination. You then have six months to prove real-world use, extendable up to three years in six-month increments.
Publication for opposition
The mark publishes in the Official Gazette. Anyone who believes it conflicts with their rights can oppose here.
Registration
If unopposed, the mark registers and the certificate issues.
The USPTO does not keep one list of registered trademarks. It keeps two, and which one you land on changes what you walk away with.
The strong one
Principal Register
- Nationwide presumption of ownership
- Right to use the ® symbol
- Eligibility for Amazon Brand Registry
- After five straight years of use, a path to functionally unchallengeable status
The consolation prize
Supplemental Register
- Open to marks too descriptive for the Principal Register
- You still get ® and can still sue in federal court
- No presumption of ownership — you prove your rights from scratch
- No path to unchallengeable status while you stay here
Two separate costs. Any attorney who does not split them apart upfront is not being transparent.
Per class
$549Legal services
Clearance on the proposed name before we file, preparation and filing of the application, direct correspondence with the examining attorney, and my time walking you through what each stage actually means.
Per class
$370Government fee
The USPTO's fee, not mine. Non-refundable even if the mark is refused — which is exactly why the clearance check up front matters.
To start
$919Total, one class
No add-ons, no final filing fee sprung on you later, no hourly billing creep. Each additional class carries its own $549 + $370. You know the full number before anything is filed.
Two classes → $1,838 · Three classes → $2,757
You can legally file yourself. The honest question is what happens the moment something does not go smoothly.
If you are US-domiciled you may file without counsel. If you are foreign-domiciled, the USPTO requires a US-licensed attorney — that one is not a preference.
Filing is not the finish line. It is the start of examination.
Office actions: the part that scares people for no reason
A meaningful share of applications get at least one office action. The word "action" makes it sound like something went wrong; usually nothing did. The examiner has a question or an objection to address before moving forward. The common ones:
Likelihood of confusion
The examiner thinks your mark is too close to a registered mark covering related goods. Exactly what clearance is trying to catch first.
Merely descriptive
The examiner reads the mark as describing what you sell rather than identifying who you are.
Specimen refusal
Your proof of use does not meet USPTO standards. A common fix, not a dealbreaker.
Disclaimer requirement
A generic word sits alongside your distinctive one, and the examiner wants exclusive rights to that piece disclaimed.
What actually kills an application is almost never the office action. It is silence — missing the response deadline. A difficult office action answered on time still has a real shot. A simple one nobody answers is dead on day 91.
The mistakes that sink applications
- The specimen does not match reality. A mockup or design proof instead of the mark being used to sell the real thing.
- The goods and services description is too broad, too vague, or wrong. Listing "clothing" when you sell hats, or copying a competitor's language that does not match what you do.
- The drawing does not match how the mark is used. Filing standard character when the design needs protecting, or the reverse.
- The wrong filing basis. Claiming use in commerce before you technically have it, or intent you do not actually hold.
- The wrong owner on the application. Correctable, but depending on timing, not always simply.
A registration is leverage. It only works if someone is using it.
Deadlines
Renewals are not optional
Between years 5 and 6 you file a Section 8 declaration confirming the mark is still in use. Then you renew every 10 years. Skip either and the registration can be cancelled for abandonment — regardless of how strong the mark is or how long you have held it.
Watch
Monitoring
Most infringement does not announce itself. A watch service checks new USPTO filings, state registrations and marketplace listings against your mark on a cadence, so a conflict surfaces in weeks rather than years. The longer a conflicting mark sits unchallenged, the harder it is to argue you were protecting your rights.
Letter of protest
Catch a conflicting application while it is still pending and you can put evidence in front of the examiner — faster and cheaper than a formal opposition.
Opposition and cancellation
Thirty days at publication to oppose before registration. Miss it and a cancellation proceeding can still challenge a registered mark on confusion, abandonment or fraud.
A direct conversation
Most conflicts end with a calibrated letter, not a lawsuit — a coexistence agreement, a modification, sometimes a rebrand on their end. Litigation is the last resort.
None of this happens automatically. The registration gives you standing to act. Whether you act is still on you.
Case 01
Founders & small business
File early relative to your growth, not after you have built something with the name. Catch a naming problem before you have spent money on it and it is a filing fee and maybe a different name. Catch it after you are known locally for that name and it is a rebrand — new signage, new packaging, a customer base relearning who you are.
Case 02
E-commerce & Amazon
Registration is the access requirement for Amazon Brand Registry, and Brand Registry is what actually protects you on the platform: A+ content, counterfeit takedowns, control over who sells under your name. E-commerce brands get copied fast precisely because listing a lookalike costs nothing.
Case 03
Startups, SaaS & apps
"We own the domain" is not proof of ownership — a domain is a lease. It becomes a real problem when outside money arrives and diligence starts: "we hold a federal registration" is a different answer than "we own the URL." Renaming mid-raise means a new app store listing, reset reviews and rankings, and users relearning your name.
A growing share of the fastest-growing brands in the US are Latino-owned, and a disproportionate number are underprotected.
Not because the founders do not take their brand seriously — because they have rarely had access to a trademark attorney who understood the name they built, the reference underneath it, or spoke the language they built it in.
The doctrine of foreign equivalents: the USPTO and courts can translate a foreign-language mark into English before deciding whether it is descriptive or confusing. "El Toro" gets evaluated as though you filed "The Bull." That is not a reason to avoid a Spanish name. It is a reason to have the conversation before filing, not after an office action raises it for you.
Segarra IP is a bilingual, Latino-owned trademark practice — built for founders who have never had to translate their own brand story just to get good legal advice about it.
A federal trademark practice, fully remote, serving founders anywhere in the US.
Flat-fee pricing
Legal fees and USPTO fees always itemized separately. Never hourly.
Strategy before paperwork
Part of the value is telling a client what not to file.
Remote, all 50 states
Trademark rights are federal. New York, Los Angeles, Miami, anywhere — same practice.
Bilingual by design
Built for founders building culturally rooted brands.
Educational information, not legal advice. No attorney–client relationship is formed by reading this page.