What are the benefits of a federal trademark registration?
Answer: There are many benefits of a federal trademark registration, both direct and indirect. Direct benefits are numerous and include:
- National protection of the mark;
- Ability to obtain injunctions stopping infringers;
- Ability to use the registration to apply for foreign trademark registrations;
- Greater access to the federal court system;
- Assistance from the United States Custom in stopping counterfeit and infringing goods from importation; and
- Attorneys fees when proper notice has been attached to the goods or services. I
In addition to these considerations, trademark registration provides indirect benefits in the form of being able to point to it when protecting marks used for social media accounts, protect against improper use in search engines, ability to obtain new domains in sunrise periods, and providing great leverage in UDRP and URS disputes against cyber-squatters.
Why Provide these Benefits
Providing these benefits serve two primary functions. By granting these rights to trademark owners the government helps to incentivise business owners by helping to protect the goodwill embodied in their brands. This in turn helps protect consumers by letting them know that when they buy a product, that the product originated from the brand owner and not an impostor. This ability to build a portfolio of valuable business assets has obvious benefits to any business owner.