Most people are aware of the numerous benefits of having a trademark registration on the Principal Register belonging to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In fact, trademark owners are urged by trademark attorneys to select distinctive marks in order 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 has the benefit of value, especially as soon as the alternative is your own the question most important.
Before the benefits associated with being supplementally registered is discussed, when you understand that that your supplemental registration does not provide. Marks typically be 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 potential pertains. Such placement does not spend the money for exclusive right also included with the mark in commerce in expertise of its identified goods or services. Equally important, it does not serve as prima facie evidence from the validity of the registered mark or of the Trademark Attorney in India registrant’s ownership of this mark. Finally, it is an admission how the mark is not inherently distinctive.
While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s should be registered on the primary Register, a supplemental registration has benefits of its own. In fact, some entities choose to have a brand that tells consumers what is actually always they are offering (e.g. Pizza Restaurant) as opposed a good inherently distinctive mark (.e.g. Domino’s) that needs 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 main Register due there having acquired distinctiveness. It is worth noting that both allow the owner to use the registered trademark symbol, sue in federal court, and take benefit from certain international treaties.
Thus, any registration with the USPTO is better than having no trademark registration at all. While ultimately the Principal Register provides the most benefits and best protection, the Supplemental Register should be considered where an entity prefers what is likely to be a merely descriptive mark at the outset or didn’t acquire the requisite distinctiveness to be registered on where lots of deem as the preferred spot.