Focus on Trademarks and Other Intellectual Property

Business owners who retain Four Reasons Legal to handle any and all matters that are trademark-related, or that fall within the bounds of intellectual property generally, are tapping into the benefits of founding attorney Steve Zemanick’s more than 15 years of legal experience and superb track record.

Steve’s qualifications include prior service with a prestigious multinational law firm, accolades for his work as brand specialist and lawyer for consumer-intensive product companies. He combines extensive knowledge of trademark law with direct one-on-one personal attention for all processes and problems.

Proactive, Innovative Trademark Representation In Denver, Colorado, Statewide, and nationally, Steve Zemanick places special emphasis on these and many other intellectual property practice areas:

• Trademark availability searches, acquisition, clearance and registration

• Trademark portfolio management

• Trademark enforcement, oppositions and cancellations

• Protection of client rights during trademark disputes

• Intellectual property transactions

What Is a Trademark?

Trademarks are an important category of intellectual property used by businesses in almost every industry. Essentially, a trademark is a brand name for a specific product or business. Creating, registering, and establishing an original and distinctive trademark is key to any business’ success. A company can trademark various things, including a name, symbol, logo, phrase, device, or specific design element intended to help identify a particular product or brand or both.

One of a trademark’s primary functions is to distinguish your product from similar products and other brands. Trademarks allow customers to recognize your products quickly and easily. Having a clear, distinctive trademark helps eliminate confusion with competitors and makes it harder for consumers to accidentally buy the wrong product. For example, the word “Coca-Cola” is a trademark. “Coca-Cola” has a classic, curvy, stylized script and the original curvy Coca-Cola glass bottle design. The name “Nike'' is a trademark, and so is the classic lightning bolt symbol associated with the famous athletic wear brand worldwide.

Denver Intellectual Property Attorney

Trademarks are more than just a fancy symbol or a clever name. They are an asset to your business that communicates something to your customers in an instant. A trademark represents your brand’s quality and reputation; essentially, it is an advertisement. At Four Reasons Legal, we will work with you throughout the entire trademark process to develop and maintain your brand and reputation. Our team of experienced and knowledgeable intellectual property lawyers will help you every step of the way and save you extensive time and money.

Choosing a Trademark

Selecting an appropriate and unique trademark is not as easy as it sounds. Before you can submit your trademark registration application to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for approval, you need to conduct a thorough search of all existing trademarks to make sure yours is completely original, unique, and distinctive. To be approved by USPTO, your proposed trademark cannot share any similarities with other trademarks, as this could confuse consumers. Unfortunately, doing a simple Google search is not sufficient. Whether you wish to trademark a name, phrase, symbol, logo, design, or device to be used to represent your product or business, Four Reasons Legal can guide you through the selection process, using our specialty trademark search engines and our extensive knowledge of what similarities to look for.

Apply for Your Registered Trademark

Applying for a nationally registered trademark requires extensive knowledge of US trademark laws and familiarity with the USPTO process and classifications. To be approved, your trademark must meet all legal trademark requirements, and your trademark registration application must adhere to the specific guidelines and classification of the USPTO. If any portions of your application are filled out incorrectly, or if some information is missing or unclear, your application will either be returned, and you will be asked to clarify or rewrite, or it will be denied right away. Hiring a trademark attorney will help ensure this doesn’t happen and your application gets approved without a hitch.

Trademark Enforcement and Litigation

Establishing a trademark and developing your brand reputation takes a considerable effort, and we understand the importance of protecting your valuable brand identity. If you think another business is violating your trademark rights, if someone is claiming that you are violating theirs, or if you are facing action from the USPTO itself, Four Reasons Legal can help. Our team of excellent trademark lawyers will help maintain your trademark rights by:

• Obtaining a foreign trademark: Trademarks must be registered separately in every country. This process can be challenging and complex. If you wish to market your brand or product in another country or to protect your trademark from use by businesses outside the US, Four Reasons Legal will help you obtain a trademark registration for the foreign countries of your choosing. We will file the foreign application on your behalf using the Madrid Protocol and a network of international law firms and attorneys.

• Monitoring your intellectual property: We will regularly monitor your trademark to help locate any competitors who could violate your trademark rights. If we discover another person or business entity is using some aspect of your trademark, we will investigate whether that entity has any legal rights to said intellectual property, and if not, we will pursue legal action to safeguard your rights and the reputation of your business.

• Issuing a cease and desist: If we locate a competitor who uses an element of your intellectual property or infringes on your trademark rights, we will send them a letter that shows your ownership of the intellectual property and a list of the infringements being made, and demand they cease using your property immediately.

• Negotiating settlements: Generally, the infringing party will give up without a fight. In many cases, they were unaware they were infringing on anyone’s rights and desist immediately. However, this is not always the case. No matter how the other party responds, Four Reasons Legal will work hard on your behalf to reach your desired results. We are usually able to achieve this by negotiation, without going to court.

• Litigation: If a settlement is not reached through negotiation, we will bring the matter before a judge. The lawyers on our intellectual property team have successfully litigated many intellectual property disagreements on our clients’ behalf. We will work tirelessly to defend your rights and protect your business asset.

• Other trademark proceedings: Trademark law is complex and challenging. Luckily, our team of attorneys has experience navigating this field. We will protect and defend you in front of a Trademark, Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) in all manner of cases, including disputes between you and the United States Patent and Trademark Examining Attorneys, trademark cancellations, and trademark oppositions.

Are you pursuing a trademark that makes your established or emerging business clearly visible in today’s marketplace? The law firm to talk to is Four Reasons Legal. With an email message, you can arrange a candid discussion of your wishes, IP law goals and issues.