Finding a trademark for a home business opportunity online PDF Print E-mail
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It is always important to protect yourself and your assets as a business owner of a home business opportunity online. One of the first ways to do this is by getting a trademark approved by the government in order to protect your company name. This will be important down the road as you get bigger.
In USA the office through which you trademark is called the United States Patent and Trademark Office. If you go online to their website you will actually find that they provide a form called the Trademark Electronic Application System of the TEAS where you can finish most of the process at their website with step by step direction.
The normal fee for this can be around $325 depending what you need to get done with it. Probably one of the smartest things you can do is get help from those that know what they are doing with a trademark if this is your first time. The USPTO provides a twenty four hour customer service number on their site where you can contact them for help with filling out the form.
They can only take you so far so I suggest that you get a trademark lawyer that can do the rest for you. There are plenty of trademark lawyers out there that will help you through this whole process and develop a brand that is very unique from other brands that are out there. They can also help with your thought process to make sure that you are filling it out right.
Often you can run into a problem with filing these forms because it can take several months for an answer on your approval. You might get declined because it is not a reasonable trademark because it is too general or you might have competition that will be infringed upon.
If you are out of the country you can actually get someone else like a lawyer to represent you in filing the trademark application. Whether you are a US citizen or not it doesn't really matter and you can still turn in the form. You will probably have to get a EIN number if you do not have a citizenship.
I would suggest that when you choose your name that you keep it very general because you never know how your company may change down the road and move into a new direction with products, services and philosophy. You don't want to box yourself in with a name that doesn't apply to your business anymore.
When you have finished this process take joy in it because you have now staked your claim to intellectual property. This could be the beginning of a wonderful future for your brand not having to worry about legal liabilities.