Trademark Snooping: A Future Reality Television Series?

People often ask me if they can register a trademark for a product that will come out in the future, and the answer is yes, absolutely. 

In fact, in the age of aggressive online copycats, it’s a great idea to register a trademark for a future product. You might do this for a number of reasons:

You haven’t finished developing the brand yet, and you want to protect it while your creative team finishes the marketing or launch collateral and creatives

You’re still in the development and testing phase for a product, and you aren’t ready to use it yet on your product, but you want to make sure that when you are ready to market and sell your product, that someone else hasn’t snatched the brand out from under you.

You plan on a whole series of products using the same name in the future, and you want to ensure that the name remains available for those future versions of the product. 

You can do this by filing a trademark application based on your “intent to use” the mark in commerce at a future date. If you have a “bona fide” intent to use the mark in the future, then you can file a trademark application and prove your use later, when you actually begin using the mark. 

The trademark process looks virtually the same, except that you don’t show your use at the time the trademark application is filed, you show it later. The application is submitted, and the mark is published for opposition. If no Opposition proceeding is filed by a third party, then the trademark Examiner issues a “Notice of Allowance.” This Notice of Allowance triggers a 6 month deadline, by which the applicant must either 1) prove that they are using the trademark “in commerce”, or 2) extend the time to file a Statement of Use by another 6 months. 

This time for extending the time to file the statement of use may be extended for up to 3 years after the Notice of Allowance is issued. So you have up to 3 years to prove use of the mark, just by paying a fee and filing an Extension to File a Statement of Use. 

This “intent to use” trademark application is as close as you get to “squatter’s rights” in the trademark world. Note that you DO eventually have to prove use, and you can’t hold the mark in reserve for perpetuity, only for 3 years. And you do have to have a bona-fide intention to use the mark in commerce, so you can’t do this for a mark which you have no intention of actually using. 

Find me online at https://trademarkdoctor.net. Leave questions or comments on my Facebook page at http://link.trademarkdoctor.net/FB and I’ll answer them in a future LIVE video. “LIKE” my Facebook page to be notified every time I go LIVE.

I’m on Facebook! “Like” my facebook page,  to be notified every time I go LIVE. Do you have trademark questions? Message me on the Trademark Doctor Facebook page, and I’ll answer your questions on a future Live video.

Contact Dallas, Texas trademark attorney Angela Langlotz today to get started on a trademark application for your valuable brand.

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