Manhattan Trademark Attorney at Lewis & Hand, LLP, a Brooklyn, New York, Law Firm

Finding a strong trademark to help distinguish your business is essential to developing a brand identity and becoming known among your customer base. Brooklyn trademark lawyer Brett Lewis provides effective legal service to help clients choose an effective trademark, ensure that it's not already taken, and register it. For a initial consultation, contact Lewis & Hand, LLP.

Different Levels of Trademark Distinctiveness

The more distinctive your trademark, the easier it is to register and protect. The US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) recognizes five different levels of distinctiveness among trademarks:

• "Fanciful" - a word that is purely invented and has nothing to do with the product it describes. "Fanciful" trademarks are the strongest type of marks. Examples include "Microsoft" and "Yahoo!."
• "Arbitrary" – using a common, dictionary word in a way that has nothing, whatsoever, to do with the product, such as "Apple" for a company that sells computers.
• "Suggestive" – it is not immediately apparent from a suggestive trademark what type of goods or services it describes, but there is some connection with the product that becomes apparent in context.  For example, Sugar does not describe a dating service, but is suggestive of some aspect of dating.
• "Descriptive" – these marks describe some quality of what is being sold.  Because they are non-distinct, they are more difficult to register and harder to protect against infringement. However, descriptive trademarks can gain distinctiveness through the success and popularity of a business.
• “Generic” – these terms cannot be registered as trademarks.  An example of a “generic” use of a mark would be Real Estate Broker for a licensed seller of Real Estate.

After You've Chosen Your Trademark: The Registration Process

The first step in clearing your trademark for registration and use is to conduct a search on the United States PTO Web site, to see if the name is already taken. If it isn't, we recommend that you have us commission a full search of all state, federal and common law (i.e., unregistered) trademark use, using a comprehensive search service. If there are still no issues, we issue a clearance letter and proceed with registration.

The application process entails submitting a trademark application, with specimens of use, a description of your goods or services and an application fee to the PTO. After all of this is complete, it takes roughly 6 months to receive response from the PTO, to see if there are any issues that must be cleared.

To discuss registering your trademark, contact a Brooklyn trademark lawyer at Lewis & Hand, LLP today.

Lewis & Hand
Attorneys at Law, LLP
45 Main Street, Suite 818
Brooklyn, NY 11201-8200

Phone: (718) 243-9323 
Fax: (718) 243-9326

Trademark registration services are available for clients nationwide and throughout the New York metropolitan area, including Queens, Manhattan, Staten Island, New York City, the Bronx, and Brooklyn, New York.

Westchester County, Nassau County, Kings County, New York County, Rockland County