Getting a trademark for your business is a surefire way to protect and legally guard a product or service unique to your brand. Anyone who wants to commercially sell a product will want to receive a trademark for it to protect themselves from copycats, illegal distribution, and other various forms of brand scamming or slandering that may happen.

The process for all trademarks is largely the same. There are, in total, five steps to receiving a successful natural foods trademark:

1. Pre-application Preparation
   Before you even think about submitting an application to the USPTO, you’ll need to do some rudimentary preparations:
   • Formatting/designing
   • Identifying use/goods/services
   • Search for conflicting trademarks
   • Choose a filing basis

   You shouldn’t start an application without having looked at and preparing all of these specific categories beforehand. A natural foods trademark will require a logo, what you are using that logo for (i.e., the product/good/service it represents), identifying potentially conflicting trademarks that already exist, and choosing a filing basis for your trademark. The filing basis pertains to the intent in which you plan to use the trademark for. This could be commerce or foreign application/registration for your trademark. You should consider hiring a trademark attorney to support you in the trademarking process. Trademark applications can take months, if not more, to complete and you could be declined resulting in a need to reapply. A trademark attorney is a lawyer who specifically deals in trademarks. They research conflicting problems, help you identify issues, and ensure that you have all the relevant information needed to submit an application.

2. Submit Your Application
   Once you have gathered all the relevant information necessary, you can submit your application to the USPTO office. The application requires an account and has a non-refundable fee of $250-$350, depending on the registration type selected. After you have submitted all of the paperwork to the USPTO office, you can then monitor the status of your application through the Trademark Status and Document Retrieval (TSDR) system. You’ll want to check on your application at least once every six months, if not more, as timely legal action is required to successfully register. If you don’t respond within a given time frame, your application can be declared abandoned and you’ll need to start all over from square one.
3. USPTO Examining Attorney
   Now that the USPTO has recognized that you have all the required information to proceed, an examining attorney will be the one to oversee the rest of the application. An examining attorney will ensure that all the information in the application is present, the fee has been submitted/paid, and that all the rules and statutes have been followed. Once they have all the information needed, they will then start a complete review of the trademark. They will do a preliminary search for any conflicting trademarks that are currently active, examine the application, and check the design of your logo/examine specimens. If the examining attorney finds everything in order, they will send you a required office action. This office action requires you to respond within six months of a given time or the application will be considered abandoned and you’ll return to square one.
4. Assessing Objections and Receiving Approval
   A few months after you respond to the office action, the examining attorney will publish the trademark in the “Official Gazette.” This is an official weekly publication from the USPTO that all trademarks must go through to be registered. If someone with a live registered trademark or anyone who has any objections sees the logo, they have 30 days to respond with their objections. If you receive an objection, you will undergo a trial similar to a federal court trial, but it will be under the USPTO administration and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). Once all objections are cleared or the 30 days pass with no objections, you will receive approval of your registration.
5. After Approval
   Now that you have a successful registration, you will need to fill out some maintenance documents before your trademark actually goes live. These documents are required, but they will also give you the ability to expand your trademark further if you need to. A trademark attorney can help you file the needed maintenance documents and talk to you about possible additions you might consider.

What Exactly Is a Natural Foods Trademark?

Before we explain exactly what a natural foods trademark represents, it’s important to know some critical information about trademarks. There are, firstly, 45 different classes that a trademark can fall under. The ‘classes’ represent the product the brand represents. For instance, class 032 pertains to beers and beverages while 031 are all about grains and agriculture. When you submit for an application, you will likely submit a specimen, sample, or representation of the trademark on your product or service.

You’ll need to distinguish between natural and organic trademarks. Natural foods trademarks specifically represent the logo and terminology, not the process. The term ‘natural’ in food trademarks is fair game and can be used without a restriction, but organic foods will be restricted and you’ll need more certification to be able to use it in a trademark.

A natural foods trademark by itself, with no certification, does not mean that the product is natural and can for the most part be universally claimed as there are currently no defining restrictions. Your natural food trademark will then only hold with it the same standard and use that a normal foods trademark would do for you.

Hire a Trademark Experience Attorney

If it is your first time going through the trademarking process, you should consider hiring an intellectual property attorney. An intellectual property attorney specializes in trademarks, copyrights, and patents. Four Reasons Legal has over 15 years of experience in the USPTO trademarking process. We know exactly what you need to prepare before you submit to their offices and how to do it properly so you don’t waste months of time registering. Contact us for a consultation, or schedule a phone consultation today.