trademark registration

Trademark Attorney Explains Domain Names

February 28, 2015
Domain names

Clients and marketing professionals believe registration of a domain name is sufficient protection and there is no need to register a trademark or service mark. So, here goes. This trademark attorney explains domain names and how they relate to trademarks.

Much of the misunderstanding arises from advice given by early Internet marketing experts who advised clients that descriptive search terms are all that are needed, since they afford instant search engine ranking. While a descriptive domain may garner high ranking in search results, most of them stink as trademarks!

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Successful trademark clients include Hay House, the world’s largest publishers of self-improvement publishers in the world, publishing such names as Dr. Wayne Dyer, Doreen Virtue, Dr. Robert Holden, and Denise Linn. Hodgson Legal has assembled a team of international trademark lawyers with whom she works closely to protect the rights of Hay House her other clients. Hodgson Legal’s team of highly trained team anti counterfeiting experts are available to implement anti counterfeiting measures for fake goods sold both off-line and off.

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Trademark Search Before You File

April 2, 2014
Young man in Business suit with magnifying glass looking over a city

The US Trademark Office website is a good starting place, but it is only the beginning and is not a substitute for a full professional search. Our firm will search trademarks that are pending and registered at the US Trademark Office as a preliminary screening effort. However, since marks need not be identical to prevent your registration based upon confusing similarity.

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How to Copyright a Name

January 16, 2014

Clients new to the process of trademark registration sometimes ask first “how to copyright a name?” People confuse the terms trademark and copyrights, since patents trademark and copyrights were long ago lumped together by tradition. They are in fact separate and completely different areas of law and expertise. The correct question to ask is “how to trademark a name?” There is no such thing as copyright protection for a name. Instead, a copyright protects the artistic expression of an idea, such as a song, book, photograph, or art. The name of a product or service is covered by a US trademark, so “trademarking a name” is the more appropriate phrase. A trademark serves to identify and distinguish one merchant’s product or service from another.

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