|
|
 
A state trademark is offered to business owners as a half-way point between common law protection and full-fledged federal protection. It is ideal for the business that will never expand beyond a set geographical location but wants to ensure its legal right to identifying names, symbols and words. A state trademark application is available through the Kansas Secretary of States office. While each states regulations vary, generally a state trademark will last 10 years and follows registration guidelines similar to a federal trademark.
You might think you qualify as geographically limited, but make sure. If you engage in interstate commerce, it might be in your best interest to register your trademark federally. What is interstate commerce? If you operate a website, a mail order catalog or if you sell across state lines, you are engaging in interstate commerce. If you do any business outside of Kansas, youll probably want your business identity to be protected within another state; otherwise your legal right to use your name and logo can come into question.
When registering for a trademark, both state and federal levels operate under the first come, first served principle. You cant infringe on any previously registered state or US trademark, just as no one in Kansas will be able to infringe on you once youve registered. To ensure you have full ownership of your brand identity, you will likely be required to do a trademark search. Searches can be done by you or a professional trademark search firm, such as LegalZoom, at the Kansas Secretary of State and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The same work is required of you at the federal level, but the protections extend out of your state and into the nation as a whole.
Check out LegalZooms free, online legal library to answer any questions you have about federal trademarks. If you decide to register federally, fill out a simple online questionnaire and well take care of trademark searches, registration, and monitoring the marketplace for any infringement. Register your business identity with the USPTO today and expand your business plan far into the future.
|
|
| |
