When you are investing your hard earned money in a new venture it is important to ensure that your products are protected from any kind of imitation and manipulation. Trademark filing could surely be the first initiative towards ensuring the same. The process of trademark filing in united states is, though, a long, complicated and tedious process, still, it worth a lot in the long run.
However, businesses and enterprises should do a thorough trademark search to judge the validity of their mark. There are many ways through which a comprehensive and full trademark search can be accomplished and you can read the trademark search process, here and here.
However, trademark search is beyond the scope of this article and here we are going to describe more about the requirements those are necessary for filing a trademark in united states.
Requirements for trademark filing in United States-
(a) The application must be in English and include the following:
(1) A request for registration;
(2) The name of the applicant(s);
(3)(i) The citizenship of the applicant(s); or
(ii) If the applicant is a corporation, association, partnership or other juristic person, the
jurisdiction (usually state or nation) under the laws of which the applicant is organized; and
(iii) If the applicant is a domestic partnership, the names and citizenship of the general
partners; or
(iv) If the applicant is a domestic joint venture, the names and citizenship of the active
members of the joint venture;
(4) The address of the applicant;
(5) One or more bases, as required by § 2.34(a);
(6) A list of the particular goods or services on or in connection with which the applicant uses
or intends to use the mark. In a U.S. application filed under section 44 of the Act, the scope of the
goods or services covered by the section 44 basis may not exceed the scope of the goods or
services in the foreign application or registration;
(7) The international class of goods or services, if known. See § 6.1 of this chapter for a list of
the international classes of goods and services;
(8) If the mark is not in standard characters, a description of the mark;
(9) If the mark includes non-English wording, an English translation of that wording; and
(10) If the mark includes non-Latin characters, a transliteration of those characters, and either
a translation of the transliterated term in English, or a statement that the transliterated term has no
meaning in English.
(b) The application must include a verified statement that meets the requirements of § 2.33.
(c) The application must include a drawing that meets the requirements of § 2.51 and 2.52.
(d) The application must include fee required by § 2.6 for each class of goods or services.
(e) For the requirements of a multiple-class application, see § 2.86.
(f) For the requirements of all collective mark applications, see § 2.44.
(g) For the requirements of a certification mark application, see § 2.45.
All we can say is that trademark filing in United States, is, though, a long and complicated process it can be of immense use provided it is filed at the right time with right insight. Filing a trademark is important because it offers a legal ownership to the products and the owner can enforce its rights in case of untoward events like trademark infringement.