Most people know the of the numerous benefits of having a trademark registration 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 that you simply can to be able to, upon easily use in interstate commerce, be registered there and have numerous presumptions because validity, ownership, and notice. However, the Supplemental Register also has value, especially when the alternative is beyond the question most important.

Before the primary advantages of being supplementally registered is discussed, you’ll want 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 supply of the goods or services to which the objective pertains. Such placement does not pay the exclusive right to use the mark in commerce in connection with its identified goods or services. Equally important, it does not serve as prima facie evidence of your validity of the registered mark or of the Trademark Agent in India registrant’s ownership from the mark. Finally, it may an admission how the mark is not inherently distinctive.

While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s hopeful registered on the principal Register, a supplemental registration has great things about its own. In fact, some entities choose to have a brand that tells consumers what this is they are offering (e.g. Pizza Restaurant) as opposed with regard to an inherently distinctive mark (.e.g. Domino’s) demands effort to create consumer recognition. Such marks are not going to warrant principal placement, although they be supplementally licensed. After five years on the Supplemental Register, the mark may qualify for the primary Register due going without running shoes 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 agreements.

Thus, any registration with the USPTO is better than having no trademark registration at any. While ultimately the Principal Register provides the best results and best protection, the Supplemental Register should be considered where an entity prefers what may be a merely descriptive mark at the outset or has failed to acquire the requisite distinctiveness to be registered on where many deem as favored spot.