The Basics of Trademark Enforcement

Monitoring your trademark

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will not monitor or enforce your trademark. You have to keep an eye out for competitive products or services using your mark or a similar one. This is your responsibility—the law will not police your trademark.

To monitor your trademark, regularly check USPTO filings to see if any applications have marks similar to yours. You also want to keep your eye on the marketplace for companies or people who offer competitive products or services. You can either take the do-it-yourself approach and set up internet alerts for your trademark, or you can hire experts who will do the monitoring for you.

Enforcing a trademark

Most trademark-infringement enforcement strategies start with sending a cease and desist letter addressed to the trademark infringer. A cease and desist letter identifies the nature of the infringement and demands that the infringement stop immediately. You can write the letter yourself, preferably using your business letterhead. You can also hire an attorney to write and send this letter on your behalf. If the demand letter does not produce any results, then you will need to file a lawsuit.

You will only file a trademark infringement lawsuit if your cease and desist letter does not work. Lawsuits are expensive and require an experienced trademark attorney. If you have registered your trademark, you have the benefit of filing a lawsuit in federal court. If your trademark is not registered, and the infringing mark is being used in the same state in which you use your trademark, you file in state court.

If your lawsuit is successful, the court will issue an injunction—an order telling the infringing party to stop using your trademark. In some instances, you could recover damages that resulted in lost business revenue. If the infringing party used your trademark intentionally, the court could force them to forfeit profits gained by using your trademark, pay your damages, and pay your court and legal fees.

Trademarks are vital to the success of your business. You need to use them, monitor them for possible infringement, and take immediate action to stop the infringer when you identify them. If you don't, no one else will.