{"id":5401,"date":"2017-08-17T15:01:32","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T21:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bgs.com\/?p=5401"},"modified":"2017-08-17T15:01:32","modified_gmt":"2017-08-17T21:01:32","slug":"help-someone-trademarked-my-company-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/help-someone-trademarked-my-company-name\/","title":{"rendered":"HELP!!! Someone trademarked my company name!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Yep. Before explaining how this happens, a little background information is needed. Every state has an office charged with registering businesses that wish to do business in the state. In Minnesota, that office is called the Secretary of State\u2019s office (hereafter SOS) and registering businesses is one of many tasks it undertakes. \u00a0The SOS will not permit a company to be formed that has the exact same name as an already registered company, and other rules apply in choosing a name. Once the name is registered, it is yours to use \u2013 doing business in Minnesota<\/a>. It is not reserved for your use beyond the borders of the state.
\nThere is a common misconception that forming an entity at the state level somehow reserves the name in the same way that filing a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) does. It does not\u2026 in fact, on the USPTO website<\/a> you will see the following caution:<\/p>\n

However, a state\u2019s authorization to form a business with a particular name does not also give you trademark rights and other parties could later try to prevent your use of the business name if they believe a likelihood of confusion exists with their trademarks.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Although a trademark is frequently a name (or logo) and may be related to the name of the company, the difference can best be explained by reference to the definition of a trademark. Here is the one provided by the USPTO:\u00a0 \u201cA trademark is generally a word, phrase, symbol, or design, or a combination thereof, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. \u00a0A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than goods.\u201d\"\"<\/a>
\nHow do you acquire a trademark?\u00a0 Trademark rights are dependent on USE \u2013 to register a trademark a company must prove that it is using the mark in interstate<\/strong> commerce. To add additional protection, a trademark owner may file an application to register the mark with the USPTO. What does the USPTO check when that application is presented? It checks its own records \u2013 it does NOT do a state by state check to see if there are any entities doing business under a name that the applicant now wishes to register.
\n 
\nThis situation can create problems especially for start up companies. It is important to remind company owners that a business registration in a state<\/a> (or a name reservation in a state) does not stop another party from registering a trademark using all or some of the company name.
\nRecommendations<\/strong>:\u00a0 Searching for trademarks that consist of words is fairly easy to do on the USPTO website. Before choosing the business name for a new entity, check USPTO and do a general search on the internet. If someone else is operating a similar <\/u>business with the name you intend to use, consider choosing a different name.
\nIf you are contacted by a trademark owner claiming you must change your company name, contact an attorney. If your use of the name is prior to the trademark owner, and you have different products in a different area, you will likely prevail.
\nGet help with your legal questions!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yep. Before explaining how this happens, a little background information is needed. Every state has an office charged with registering businesses that wish to do business in the state. In Minnesota, that office is called the Secretary of State\u2019s office (hereafter SOS) and registering businesses is one of many tasks it undertakes. \u00a0The SOS will not permit a company to be formed that has the exact same name as an already registered company, and other rules apply in choosing a name. Once the name is registered, it is yours to use \u2013 doing business in Minnesota. It is not reserved for your use beyond the borders of the state. There is a common misconception that forming an entity at the state level somehow reserves the name in the same way that filing a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) does. It does not\u2026 in fact, on the USPTO website you will see the following caution: However, a state\u2019s authorization to form a business with a particular name does not also give you trademark rights and other parties could later try to prevent your use of the business name if they believe a likelihood of confusion exists with their trademarks. Although a trademark is frequently a name (or logo)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"yoast_head":"\nHELP!!! Someone trademarked my company name!! - Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/help-someone-trademarked-my-company-name\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"HELP!!! Someone trademarked my company name!! - Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yep. Before explaining how this happens, a little background information is needed. Every state has an office charged with registering businesses that wish to do business in the state. In Minnesota, that office is called the Secretary of State\u2019s office (hereafter SOS) and registering businesses is one of many tasks it undertakes. \u00a0The SOS will not permit a company to be formed that has the exact same name as an already registered company, and other rules apply in choosing a name. Once the name is registered, it is yours to use \u2013 doing business in Minnesota. It is not reserved for your use beyond the borders of the state. There is a common misconception that forming an entity at the state level somehow reserves the name in the same way that filing a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) does. It does not\u2026 in fact, on the USPTO website you will see the following caution: However, a state\u2019s authorization to form a business with a particular name does not also give you trademark rights and other parties could later try to prevent your use of the business name if they believe a likelihood of confusion exists with their trademarks. Although a trademark is frequently a name (or logo)...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/help-someone-trademarked-my-company-name\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-17T21:01:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bgs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/help-2478193_1920-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carole Clark Isakson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carole Clark Isakson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/help-someone-trademarked-my-company-name\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/help-someone-trademarked-my-company-name\/\",\"name\":\"HELP!!! Someone trademarked my company name!! - Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-17T21:01:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-17T21:01:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cf578526284af48ebb41a289d9ac0be9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/help-someone-trademarked-my-company-name\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/help-someone-trademarked-my-company-name\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/help-someone-trademarked-my-company-name\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"HELP!!! Someone trademarked my company name!!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.\",\"description\":\"Attorneys at Law\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cf578526284af48ebb41a289d9ac0be9\",\"name\":\"Carole Clark Isakson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/9ca7f6dc65e967327cdf64c06a921b7c\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7756f9fb8a1d2dff6bdce502e9555e2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7756f9fb8a1d2dff6bdce502e9555e2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Carole Clark Isakson\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/author\/carole-clark-isakson\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"HELP!!! Someone trademarked my company name!! - Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/help-someone-trademarked-my-company-name\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"HELP!!! Someone trademarked my company name!! - Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.","og_description":"Yep. Before explaining how this happens, a little background information is needed. Every state has an office charged with registering businesses that wish to do business in the state. In Minnesota, that office is called the Secretary of State\u2019s office (hereafter SOS) and registering businesses is one of many tasks it undertakes. \u00a0The SOS will not permit a company to be formed that has the exact same name as an already registered company, and other rules apply in choosing a name. Once the name is registered, it is yours to use \u2013 doing business in Minnesota. It is not reserved for your use beyond the borders of the state. There is a common misconception that forming an entity at the state level somehow reserves the name in the same way that filing a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) does. It does not\u2026 in fact, on the USPTO website you will see the following caution: However, a state\u2019s authorization to form a business with a particular name does not also give you trademark rights and other parties could later try to prevent your use of the business name if they believe a likelihood of confusion exists with their trademarks. Although a trademark is frequently a name (or logo)...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/help-someone-trademarked-my-company-name\/","og_site_name":"Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.","article_published_time":"2017-08-17T21:01:32+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/bgs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/help-2478193_1920-150x150.jpg"}],"author":"Carole Clark Isakson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carole Clark Isakson","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/help-someone-trademarked-my-company-name\/","url":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/help-someone-trademarked-my-company-name\/","name":"HELP!!! Someone trademarked my company name!! - Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-08-17T21:01:32+00:00","dateModified":"2017-08-17T21:01:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cf578526284af48ebb41a289d9ac0be9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/help-someone-trademarked-my-company-name\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/help-someone-trademarked-my-company-name\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/17\/help-someone-trademarked-my-company-name\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"HELP!!! Someone trademarked my company name!!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/","name":"Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.","description":"Attorneys at Law","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cf578526284af48ebb41a289d9ac0be9","name":"Carole Clark Isakson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/9ca7f6dc65e967327cdf64c06a921b7c","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7756f9fb8a1d2dff6bdce502e9555e2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f7756f9fb8a1d2dff6bdce502e9555e2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Carole Clark Isakson"},"url":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/author\/carole-clark-isakson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5401"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5401"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}