Types of Trade Mark: The Complete Guide for Business Owners

In fiscal year 2021, the USPTO received a record-breaking 943,928 trade mark application classes, a surge so overwhelming that average first-action pendency climbed to 6.3 months. By FY2023, that wait had stretched to 8.5 months. Filings have kept climbing since: the USPTO received 904,483 classes in fiscal 2026, 10% more than the year before, while first-action pendency fell to about 4.1 months.

Globally, WIPO estimates that about 11.7 million trade mark applications were filed worldwide in 2024, covering 15.23 million classes, nearly level with 2023. That is almost three and a half times the 2009 level. Active trade mark registrations worldwide reached an estimated 93.2 million in 2024, up 6.1% on the year before.

What many business owners don’t realize is that trade marks can protect far more than brand names.

Types of Trade Mark: What Is a Trade Mark vs. a Service Mark?

The term “mark” is a broad legal category that encompasses both trade marks and service marks. A trademark is a form of intellectual property right that legally protects distinctive signs, symbols, or words used to identify the source of goods or services. A trade mark protects marks used on goods, physical products you sell. A trademark is any word, name, symbol, device, or any combination thereof used by a person to identify and distinguish their goods from others. A service mark has the same function as a trademark but identifies the services of a business, rather than goods.

In US law, Section 45 of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. § 1127) explicitly draws this distinction. In contrast, UK and EU law simply use “trade mark” to cover both goods and services without requiring different terminology. Consider Coca-Cola as a registered trade mark protecting the soft drink itself, while Uber holds service marks protecting its ride-hailing services. The legal protection is identical, and both are registered through the same USPTO process. When filing applications in the US, you may encounter the ™ symbol for goods and ℠ for services in informal usage.

What Does a Trademark Cover?

A trademark covers any sign that identifies the source of your goods or services and distinguishes them from a competitor’s: words and names, logos, slogans, packaging and product shapes, colors, sounds, scents, and even motion. Protection reaches only the goods and services the mark is used for, plus related ones where buyers are likely to be confused, and it never covers generic terms or functional features.

These assets carry real value. Ocean Tomo estimates that intangible assets made up about 92% of S&P 500 market value at the end of 2025, up from 17% in 1975. The USPTO found that trademark-intensive industries accounted for nearly $7.0 trillion of US GDP and 41.6 million jobs in 2019.

What Qualifies for Trademark Protection

The range of protectable elements is broad, but three criteria decide whether an element qualifies. It must be distinctive, either inherently or through acquired distinctiveness, so consumers see it as pointing to one source. It must not be functional. And it must be used in commerce as a brand identifier, or in the US be the subject of a bona fide intent to use followed by actual use.

Registration Level: Federal, State, and Common Law Trade Marks

Federal Marks (US Context)

Federal trade mark registration through the USPTO provides nationwide protection across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and US territories. The Lanham Act governs this system, and registration on the Principal Register delivers substantial benefits: nationwide priority from your filing date, a legal presumption of ownership and validity, the exclusive right to use the ® symbol, access to federal courts for infringement actions, and the ability to file international applications through the Madrid Protocol.

The scale of the US federal system is significant but not unrivalled. WIPO’s 2025 data show China’s trade mark office received approximately 6.97 million class-filing units in 2024, compared to only 795,337 for the USPTO, a ratio of nearly 9:1.

On the process side, as of January 2025 the USPTO consolidated its filing forms into a single base application at a $350 fee per class, plus surcharges of $100 per class for insufficient information, $200 per class for a free-form description of goods or services, and $200 for each additional 1,000 characters. Electronic filing has been mandatory since February 2020, with narrow exceptions. Incomplete applications attract surcharges and lower first-action approval rates: in fiscal 2026, about 36% of base-fee applications were approved on the first action, compared with about 10% of applications that paid surcharges.

State Marks

Individual US states maintain their own trade mark registries. These registrations protect your mark only within that state’s borders and cost less than federal filings. However, state registration is becoming less common because federal registration almost always provides superior protection and will preempt state marks in cases of conflict. A state registration might make sense for a purely local business with no expansion plans.

Common Law Marks

Trade mark rights in the US can arise automatically from actual use in commerce, without any filing required. These common law rights protect your mark in the geographic areas where you’ve actually used it and where consumers associate it with your business. However, unregistered marks present serious challenges: narrower geographic scope, difficulty proving ownership, and weaker enforcement options.

That said, common law rights aren’t worthless. Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act allows enforcement actions for passing off and unfair competition even without registration. Many small business owners rely on common law rights initially before investing in formal trade mark registration.

Traditional Format Types of Trade Marks

These are the “classic” formats most businesses encounter when building their brand: words, logos, combinations, and slogans. Trademarks can be classified as word marks, design/logo marks, combination marks, trade dress, sound marks, collective marks, or certification marks.

Word Marks

A word mark protects the wording itself, letters, numbers, or combinations, regardless of font, color, or styling. When you register a word mark, you’re protecting the name in standard typographic characters, which generally provides broader protection than a purely stylized logo.

Think of word marks like “NIKE,” “APPLE,” and “AMAZON”, registered as standard character marks, covering the verbal and figurative elements in their simplest textual form. Invented words like “KODAK” or “XEROX” represent particularly strong word marks because they started as fanciful, coined terms with no prior meaning. Word marks can also protect product names, program names, and podcast titles, provided they function as brand identifiers rather than merely descriptive phrases.

Stage names and band names work the same way. A performer’s or rapper’s name can be registered for entertainment services such as live performances (Class 41) and for merchandise such as clothing (Class 25). For recordings (Class 9), the USPTO registers the name only once it identifies the source of a series of works, not a single album. Album titles and fictional character names can also function as trademarks on merchandise and services.

Design Marks / Logo Marks

Design marks (also called logo marks or figurative marks) protect purely graphic elements: symbols, stylized lettering, icons, or visual compositions that represent your brand. These marks cover the design as filed, the specific shape, arrangement, and overall visual impression.

Examples include the Nike Swoosh, Starbucks’s Siren logo, Target’s bullseye, and Apple’s bitten apple silhouette. The protection for a logo mark is inherently narrower than that for a word mark, as it covers only that specific visual design. If you significantly redesign your logo, you may need to file a new application to maintain strong protection.

Combination Marks

Combination marks unite word elements and design elements in a single filing, for example, a brand name integrated into a stylized emblem. Consider the ADIDAS name with its iconic three stripes or the BURGER KING wordmark nestled inside the bun-shaped logo. Combination marks deliver powerful protection for complete brand identity, but may provide narrower coverage for the word element alone compared to a separate word mark registration.

Slogan Marks / Taglines

Yes, you can trademark a slogan if it identifies the source of your goods or services. Slogan marks protect short phrases, or taglines, that are consistently used to identify and promote your brand or product line. Famous examples include “JUST DO IT” (Nike) and “THINK DIFFERENT” (Apple); Apple also registered “There’s an app for that.” However, slogans must be distinctive enough to function as source identifiers; the trade mark office will refuse purely descriptive or generic advertising phrases that anyone might use.

Non-Traditional Marks: Sound, Color, Motion, Hologram, and More

Modern trade mark law in most major jurisdictions, including the US, EU, and UK, allows registration of non-traditional marks, provided they can be represented clearly and are distinctive.

Sound Marks

A sound mark consists of distinctive audio, music, sounds, or short sequences that consumers associate with a specific commercial source. The NBC three-chime sequence is perhaps the most famous US sound mark, first registered in 1950. Intel’s five-note “bong” jingle accompanies every Intel Inside advertisement. MGM’s lion roar functions as both a sound mark and a motion mark.

Sound marks are represented in applications through audio files accompanied by musical notation or detailed written descriptions, as required by the office. Registration typically requires proving that the sound is neither functional nor commonplace; a generic phone ring or standard beep won’t qualify.

Color Marks

A color mark protects a single color or a specific color combination when used in a particular way as a source identifier. This is one of the more challenging types of trade marks to secure because colors aren’t inherently distinctive for most products.

Well-known color trade marks include Tiffany & Co.’s robin-egg “Tiffany Blue” (Pantone 1837), UPS’s brown for delivery vehicles and uniforms, and John Deere’s green and yellow combination for agricultural machinery. Notably, Owens Corning’s pink color for fiberglass insulation was the first color ever trademarked in the US, and the Supreme Court’s Qualitex decision (1995) confirmed that color alone can serve as a mark when it has acquired sufficient secondary meaning. Christian Louboutin’s red sole shows the limits: in 2012 the Second Circuit upheld the mark but limited it to red soles that contrast with the rest of the shoe.

Describe your color precisely using Pantone, HEX, or RAL codes, accompanied by clear sample images showing how the color appears on your goods or services. Protection covers color as used on specific products or packaging, not a blanket monopoly on that color across all industries.

Motion Marks

Motion marks protect moving elements, animations, or frame sequences that identify your brand. The MGM lion opening sequence and Pixar’s animated desk lamp jumping on the letter “I” before their films are classic examples of trademarkable motion.

Applications for motion marks typically include a series of still images capturing key frames, a video file, and a detailed written description of the motion sequence. The animation, taken as a whole, must be distinctive.

Hologram Marks

Hologram marks consist of holographic images or effects that change appearance when viewed from different angles. These serve dual purposes: distinctive branding and anti-counterfeiting security. Common examples include holographic security images on credit and debit cards, 3D hologram seals on branded software packaging, and authentication holograms on luxury goods. Filing typically involves submitting multiple images of the hologram from different angles, along with a detailed description of how its appearance changes.

Other Non-Traditional Marks (Scent, Shape, Store Layout)

Scent marks are possible in the US, but rare. Hasbro registered the scent of Play-Doh in 2018. A scent qualifies only if it is not functional and consumers link it to a single source, so the scent of a perfume or air freshener cannot be registered for those goods. Touch (texture) marks are also possible, while flavor marks are almost never registered because flavor is usually functional. Product shapes and three-dimensional marks include the Coca-Cola contoured bottle and the Toblerone chocolate bar shapes. The distinctive shape of the Coca-Cola bottle is a registered trademark that protects Coca-Cola’s packaging design. However, under US law, any product shape must acquire secondary meaning following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Wal-Mart v. Samara Brothers (2000), making initial registration difficult. Even store design can be protected as trade dress, as covered below.

Non-traditional marks require extensive evidence, including consumer surveys, long exclusive use, advertising expenditure data, and sales figures, to prove distinctiveness. They are advanced strategies rather than starting points for most businesses.

Trade Dress and Three-Dimensional (3D) Trade Marks

Trade dress refers to the overall look and feel of a product or its packaging, including distinctive shape, configuration, color scheme, graphics arrangement, and layout. In many jurisdictions, trade dress qualifies as a type of trade mark subject to the same distinctiveness and non-functionality requirements as word or logo marks.

Product Packaging Trade Dress

Product packaging trade dress covers the design of boxes, bottles, wrappers, and other external packaging elements that consumers recognize as coming from a particular brand. Examples include the classic Coca-Cola red can with its distinctive script, the Chanel No. 5 perfume box design, and the iconic Tiffany blue jewellery box with white ribbon. Enforcement focuses on whether copying the overall look creates customer confusion, even if no single element is identical.

Product Design Trade Dress

Product design trade dress protects the shape or configuration of a product itself, such as the Coca-Cola bottle’s contoured glass shape, Toblerone’s triangular chocolate bar, or a speaker’s distinctive casing. Under US law, following the Supreme Court’s decision in Wal-Mart v. Samara Brothers (2000), product design trade dress cannot be inherently distinctive. It must acquire distinctiveness through use and consumer recognition (secondary meaning). Functional features, those essential to the product’s use or that affect cost or quality, cannot receive trade dress protection regardless of distinctiveness.

Store Layout and Environment Trade Dress

In some jurisdictions, the interior or exterior layout of a retail space can function as trade dress if it’s distinctive and non-functional. Apple registered its retail store layout in the US, covering elements such as the floor plan, shelving arrangements, tables, and lighting, and in 2014 the EU Court of Justice ruled that a store layout can be registered as a trade mark there too. This type of protection matters for franchised chains, hospitality venues, and experiential retail brands where the physical environment itself communicates brand identity.

Collective and Certification Marks

Not all marks are owned and used by a single business for its own goods and services. Some marks exist to identify membership in organisations or to certify that products meet particular standards. Both collective marks and certification marks are recognized under the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1054–1055) and under EU/UK law, with specific rules governing filing and use.

Collective Marks

A collective mark is owned by an association, cooperative, or group, and used by its members to indicate membership or origin of goods and services from those members. There are two subcategories: a collective trade or service mark appears on members’ goods or services, while a collective membership mark shows only that someone belongs to an organization. REALTOR®, for example, is a federally registered collective membership mark owned by the National Association of REALTORS®; no individual agent owns it, and it signals membership and adherence to the association’s Code of Ethics.

Certification Marks

A certification mark indicates that goods or services meet certain standards, quality, material, geographic origin, manufacturing method, or labour conditions, rather than identifying a particular producer. Critically, the owner of a certification mark does not use it on their own goods or services. Instead, they establish standards and authorize producers who meet those standards to apply the mark. The owner also cannot refuse qualified users: discriminately refusing to certify anyone who meets the standard is grounds for cancellation under 15 U.S.C. § 1064(5).

Well-known certification trade marks include “USDA ORGANIC” for compliant agricultural products, “FAIRTRADE” for ethically sourced goods, and geographic certification marks such as “IDAHO POTATOES” and “CHAMPAGNE.” In December 2022, the USDA announced that it had registered its Organic seal with the USPTO, giving the agency Lanham Act tools to police misuse, including injunctions and, for willful counterfeiting, statutory damages of up to $2 million per counterfeit mark per type of goods, in addition to existing civil penalties under organic laws.

Strength and Distinctiveness: The Spectrum of Trade Marks

Beyond format types, trade marks are classified by legal strength on a spectrum rooted in cases like Abercrombie & Fitch Co. v. Hunting World (1976). A mark’s place on this spectrum determines both how easily it registers and how well it can be enforced against infringers. The categories are fanciful, arbitrary, suggestive, descriptive, and generic marks.

Generic terms are the common names for products and cannot be trademarked as they do not function as source identifiers. Using “BREAD” for bread, “LAPTOP” for computers, or “COFFEE” for coffee beans does not protect anything, because these words belong in the public domain as common names and competitors need them to name their products.

Descriptive trade marks merely describe a quality, feature, function, or ingredient of the goods or services, such as “Cold and Creamy” for ice cream. They are weak and cannot be registered on the Principal Register until they acquire distinctiveness (secondary meaning) through extensive use, so you must use the term and build recognition first.

Suggestive marks hint at a quality or characteristic of the goods without directly describing them and require imagination from consumers. For example, “NETFLIX” suggests internet-delivered entertainment without explicitly stating it. These marks are inherently distinctive and registrable without proof of secondary meaning.

Arbitrary marks are common words used in unrelated contexts, and they have strong legal standing due to their unexpected use. For example, “APPLE” for computers or “SHELL” for petroleum.

Fanciful marks are totally invented, unique words with the highest level of legal protection. Examples include “KODAK,” “EXXON,” or “XEROX.”

Well-known trademarks receive protection even without registration due to their widespread recognition and established reputation in the marketplace. Nike is a well-known trademark recognized for its athletic apparel and footwear.

The genericide warning: Even the strongest trade mark can fall if it becomes generic through public use. “Aspirin” lost protection in the US when a federal court held it generic for the public in Bayer Co. v. United Drug Co. (1921), and the Patent Office cancelled Otis’s “Escalator” registration as generic in 1950. “Thermos” and “Cellophane” met the same fate because consumers began using them as common product names. Xerox has run campaigns asking people to say “photocopy” rather than use its name as a verb, and as documented by the Illinois Business Law Journal, Google has actively fought to prevent its brand name from becoming a verb. Trade mark owners must actively police usage, insisting on ® symbols and using marks as adjectives, not nouns, to prevent genericide.

Limitations: What You Cannot Trademark

You cannot trademark generic terms, descriptive terms that lack acquired distinctiveness, functional features, deceptive matter, or anything that is not used as a brand identifier. Most of these bars sit in Section 2 of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. § 1052). Generic and descriptive terms are covered in the spectrum above; the other limits work as follows.

Geographic Terms and Personal Names

You generally cannot trademark a geographic name that simply describes where products come from (like “California Wines” for wine made in California), because others in that location need to use the term.

Marks that are primarily merely a surname are also refused unless they acquire a distinctive brand association. McDonald’s is a trademark only because it has distinctiveness as a brand: it was a surname, but now points to a particular fast-food chain. Both geographic terms and surnames can be registered with proof of secondary meaning.

Deceptive, Misleading, or Functional Features

Deceptive marks are barred outright. Marks that are deceptively misdescriptive (a false but believable description of the goods) are refused unless they acquire distinctiveness. Functional features can never be registered, however well known they are, because protecting how a product works is the job of patent law, which gives a limited term.

In TrafFix Devices v. Marketing Displays (2001), the Supreme Court refused trade dress protection for a dual-spring road sign stand that had been claimed in expired utility patents. And in 2013, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board refused to register a peppermint scent and flavor for a nitroglycerin spray because peppermint helped the medicine work, making the feature functional.

Trade Marks vs. Other IP Rights

Trade marks protect indicators of commercial origin. They differ fundamentally from other intellectual property rights. Copyrights protect original creative works and also expire, typically decades after the creator’s death. Patents protect inventions, new and useful processes, machines, or compositions of matter, and expire after fixed terms (typically 20 years for utility patents). Trade marks, by contrast, can last indefinitely as long as they’re used in commerce and renewed (every 10 years in most jurisdictions).

The scale difference is striking. According to WIPO’s IP Facts and Figures 2023, active trade mark registrations worldwide reached approximately 82.5 million in 2022, nearly five times the 17.3 million patents in force worldwide that year. The US alone had approximately 3.1 million active trade mark registrations, compared to 3.3 million active patents.

Conducting a Trade Mark Search

Before you file for trademark registration, conducting a thorough trade mark search is one of the most important steps you can take to protect your business. A comprehensive search helps you identify existing trademarks, both registered and unregistered, that could conflict with your chosen mark and ensures you select the correct trademark classes for your goods and services.

Start by searching the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database for registered and pending marks that are similar to yours, especially those covering the same or related goods or services. Don’t stop there: many businesses also use unregistered marks that may have common law rights, so it’s wise to check business directories, domain names, and even social media for similar uses. For international ambitions, consider searching WIPO’s Global Brand Database and other national trademark office records.

It’s essential to look for marks that are not just identical, but also similar in appearance, sound, or meaning, especially within the same class of goods or services. Overlooking a confusingly similar existing trademark can result in your application being refused or, worse, a legal challenge from trademark owners.

How US Trademark Registration Works, Step by Step

Federal registration usually takes about 9 to 12 months when nothing is suspended or opposed. In late fiscal 2026, the USPTO’s average total pendency was about 9.5 months, or about 11.2 months including suspended and opposed applications. Here is what to expect:

1. Pre-filing clearance. Run the search described above and decide which marks and classes to file.
2. Submitting the application. Identify the mark, list the goods or services by Nice class, state your filing basis (use in commerce or bona fide intent to use), and pay $350 per class plus any surcharges.
3. Examination. An examining attorney checks for likelihood of confusion with existing marks and for statutory bars such as descriptiveness or surnames. First actions averaged about 4.1 months in late fiscal 2026.
4. Office action response. You have three months to respond, with one optional three-month extension for a $125 fee. A response may argue against a refusal, submit evidence of acquired distinctiveness, disclaim descriptive wording, or amend the application. A final refusal can be appealed to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
5. Publication for opposition. Approved marks are published in the weekly Trademark Official Gazette. Anyone who believes the registration would harm them has 30 days to file a notice of opposition or request more time.
6. Registration or Notice of Allowance. Use-based applications proceed to registration. Intent-to-use applications receive a Notice of Allowance, after which you have six months to file a statement of use, extendable in six-month increments for up to 36 months in total.

How Long a Trademark Lasts and How to Maintain It

A US trademark registration lasts 10 years and can be renewed every 10 years indefinitely, as long as the mark stays in use. Between the fifth and sixth year after registration you must file a Section 8 declaration of use, and at each 10-year mark a combined Section 8 declaration and Section 9 renewal, each $325 per class, with a six-month grace period for an added fee. Docket these deadlines: missing one ends the registration.

Continuous use. Trademark rights hinge on use. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1127, three consecutive years of non-use is prima facie evidence of abandonment, and many other countries allow cancellation after three to five years of non-use. Keep using the mark in commerce on the registered goods and services.

Monitoring and policing. Registration does not police itself. Trademark owners often set up watch services or alerts to catch similar names or logos. If you find an infringer, a cease-and-desist letter is the typical first step, and many disputes end there with the infringer rebranding. Strategic enforcement protects your brand value and market position.

Preventing dilution and genericide. Owners of famous marks can also stop dilution, meaning uses that blur or tarnish the mark even in unrelated fields and without consumer confusion, under 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c). Genericide, covered above, is the other long-term risk.

Quality control for licensing. If you license your trademark to franchisees or merchandise makers, you must control the nature and quality of the goods or services sold under it. Failing to do so (“naked licensing”) can cost you your rights.

Incontestability. After five consecutive years of continuous use following registration, you can file a Section 15 declaration that makes the registration incontestable, which shuts off challenges such as descriptiveness. It does not protect a mark that becomes generic, is abandoned, is functional, or was obtained by fraud.

International Trade Mark Protection

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) offers the EU trade mark (EUTM), which allows you to secure a single registration valid across all EU member states, an efficient way to protect your mark throughout Europe.

Jurisdictional Differences: First-to-Use vs. First-to-File

Trademark rights are territorial: they apply only in the country or region where the mark is used or registered, and there is no single global trademark. The United States follows a first-to-use system, in which rights come from use in commerce, although a federal filing date gives nationwide priority once the mark registers. Most of the world, including the European Union, China, and Japan, follows a first-to-file system, in which the first to register generally wins, even against an earlier user. In first-to-file countries you usually don’t need prior use to register, but marks left unused for a set period (typically three to five years) can be cancelled.

Burger King learned this in Australia: a local business already held the name, so its Australian restaurants trade as Hungry Jack’s. Classification also affects strategy and cost. Nearly all countries use the Nice Classification’s 45 classes, but some offices require one class per application while others allow multi-class filings.

The Madrid System

The Madrid System, administered by WIPO, lets you file one international application through your home trademark office, in one language with one set of fees paid in Swiss francs, and designate any of its 117 members covering 133 countries, which together account for more than 80% of world trade. Each designated office still examines the mark under its own law and has 12 or 18 months to refuse protection, so Madrid is a filing mechanism, not automatic approval. Ownership changes, address changes, and renewals (every 10 years) are handled centrally through WIPO.

One caution: for its first five years, the international registration depends on your home (“basic”) application or registration. If that is cancelled or narrowed within five years, the international registration falls with it in every designated country. After five years, it becomes independent.

Beyond these systems, consider national registration in key markets where you do business, as well as regional options like the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) and the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI).

International trademark protection is often essential when enrolling in programs like Amazon Brand Registry that rely on valid trademark rights.

Common Challenges Trademark Owners Face

Counterfeiting. In fashion, luxury goods, and electronics, counterfeits are a constant problem. Recording a registered mark with U.S. Customs and Border Protection lets officers detain infringing imports, and civil suits can recover statutory damages from counterfeiters.

Cybersquatting and online infringement. Domain squatters register names containing your mark to ransom them or divert traffic. You can recover a domain through the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) or sue under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. E-commerce marketplaces and social platforms need regular policing too.

Industry-specific challenges. In entertainment and sports, trademarks drive merchandising and sponsorship revenue, so teams register names, logos, and even colors and enforce them against unlicensed fan gear. Governments do the same in tourism: New York State has owned and licensed the “I ❤ NY” logo since 1977.

Global consistency vs. local adaptation. Brands expanding abroad must decide whether one mark can work everywhere. A name may translate poorly or already belong to someone local, forcing a different brand in that market, as Hungry Jack’s shows.

How to Choose and Protect the Right Type of Trade Mark

Choosing the right types of marks is a strategic branding decision with long-term legal and commercial implications, and many businesses benefit from dedicated trademark registration services with flat-fee guarantees. Here is the step-by-step approach most trade mark attorneys recommend:

Step 1: Define what you need to protect. List your core brand name, any distinctive logos, key slogans, unique packaging, and any sounds, colors, or other non-traditional elements central to your unique identity.

Step 2: Assess distinctiveness. Where does each element fall on the spectrum?

Step 3: Run clearance searches. Search existing trade marks through the USPTO Trademark Search system (which replaced TESS in November 2023), the EUIPO database, the UKIPO register, and general searches.

Step 4: Plan registrations by priority. Focus on your most important markets first. For US businesses, federal registration typically comes first, followed by EU or UK filings via the Madrid Protocol or national registration if you’re expanding internationally. File each mark in the appropriate Nice Classification classes of goods or services.

Step 5: Use ™/℠ and ® properly. Use ™ (for goods) or ℠ (for services) even before registration to signal your claim. Once registered, use ® in the territory of registration. Proper notice strengthens rights and deters infringers.

Consider trade dress or non-traditional marks as your brand matures and develops recognisable visual or sensory elements. Certification and collective marks typically only come into play if you run a standards organisation or trade association.

Your Next Steps to Trade Mark Protection Success

Understanding the types of trade marks available to you is only the beginning.

Here’s what to do next:

1. Schedule a Free IP Strategy Call with RLG’s trade mark concierge team to identify which types of marks apply to your brand and develop a prioritized filing plan.
2. File your core word mark first. If you do nothing else, protect your brand name as a standard character mark. It’s the foundation on which everything else builds.

At Rapacke Law Group, we make this process straightforward and predictable with affordable, flat-fee intellectual property protection services. Our trade mark services include unlimited office action responses and full coverage throughout the entire application process.

We’re so confident we’ll get your mark approved that if your trade mark gets rejected, we’ll issue a 100% refund.

To Your Success,

Andrew Rapacke, Managing Partner, Registered Patent Attorney, a US patent and trademark attorney with extensive IP experience, LinkedIn | Twitter/X: @rapackelaw | Instagram: @rapackelaw