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Brand Registration on the Additional Register

Most people understand of the numerous benefits of having a trademark Online Logo Registration in India close to the Principal Register of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In fact, trademark owners are urged by trademark attorneys to select distinctive marks in order to be able to, upon use in interstate commerce, be registered there and revel in numerous presumptions because validity, ownership, and notice. However, the Supplemental Register also has value, especially when the alternative is beyond the question at the beginning.

Before the benefits associated with being supplementally registered is discussed, it is important to understand that which a supplemental registration does not 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 objective pertains. Such placement does not give the exclusive right unit the mark in commerce in experience with its identified goods or services. Equally important, it does not serve as prima facie evidence of the validity of the registered mark or of the trademark registrant’s ownership from the mark. Finally, regardless of how an admission that the mark is not inherently distinctive.

While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s hopeful 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 it is they are offering (e.g. Pizza Restaurant) as opposed with regard to an inherently distinctive mark (.e.g. Domino’s) that requires effort to create consumer recognition. Such marks are not going to warrant principal placement, whilst they be supplementally outlined. After five years on the Supplemental Register, the mark may qualify for the principal Register due there having acquired distinctiveness. It is worth noting that both allow the owner to use the registered trademark symbol, sue in federal court, and take advantage of certain international treaties.

Thus, any registration with the USPTO is better than having no trademark registration at any. 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 lots of deem as favored spot.