5 Tips to Protect Trademarks Online

With the explosion of blogs, vlogs, online magazines, and numerous internet businesses, there is tons of unprotected intellectual property on the internet.  What is intellectual property?  Intellectual Property are creations of the mind.  These creations include trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.

Trademarks are one of the most common forms of intellectual property on the internet.  Trademarks protects unique names, phrases, tag lines, and/or logos of a product or service offered for sale to the public.  For example, a blog name and/or logo is a trademark.  Furthermore, a blog is a publishing business therefore an individual who operates a blog is offering a service to its readers.

How does a trademark owner adequately protect his or her trademark online?  Here are 5 tips a trademark owner can implement now to properly protect their trademarks.

1. Apply for Registration of the mark with the USPTO. Although a trademark owner does have a right in a trademark without registration, registration provides nationwide protection against any trademark infringers.  This is particularly important when doing business online.  Infringers can be anywhere.
2. Immediately begin using the TM sign when claiming a right in a trademark. A trademark owner can immediately begin using the TM sign after a trademark before beginning the registration process with the USPTO.  Using the TM sign puts the public on notice that the trademark owner is claiming a right in the trademark.
3. Use Registered Symbol  ® after a trademark when the mark is registered with the USPTO.

4. Use Google Alerts to determine if Trademark is being used by another internet user. Set up Google Alerts to send you alerts whenever your trademark is used.  It will immediately alert you to possible online infringement.
5. Use a watch service like Mark Trend to monitor possible and actual trademark infringement on the internet. Mark Trend will do all the work for you for as little as $249 per mark per year.

Adequate trademark protection is key in deterring infringers.  It is important to note that trademark infringement can result in lost traffic, revenue, and a loss of trademark rights.

Check back next week to learn how to adequately protect Copyrights online.

About the Author
Latoicha Givens is the founder and a member of the firm Phillips Givens, LLC. Ms. Givens practice includes represention of start-ups, small, and mid-sized businesses in intellectual property matters, specficially, trademarks, copyrights, and licensing issues. She is the author of IPLAW101.com, a blog covering Intellectual Property issues specifically trademark law - trademark registration and infringement; Domain Name Disputes: Cybersquatting; Licensing and Intellectual Property issues in New Media.
See all posts by Latoicha Givens.