Most people know the of the numerous benefits of owning a trademark registration on the Principal Register belonging to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In fact, trademark owners are urged by trademark attorneys to select distinctive marks solution to to be able to, upon use in interstate commerce, be registered there and watch numerous presumptions while validity, ownership, and notice. However, the Supplemental Register also provides value, especially when the alternative is out of the question most important.
Before the advantages of being supplementally registered is discussed, when you understand that which a supplemental registration doesn’t provide. Marks tend to be relegated to the Supplemental Register because, at the request of the USPTO examining attorney, the marks are merely descriptive and therefore not a distinctive identifier of the source of the services or goods to which the mark pertains. Such placement does not pay the exclusive right to use the mark in commerce in expertise of its identified goods or services. Equally important, it does not serve as prima facie evidence of your validity of the registered mark or of the Online Trademark Registration in India registrant’s ownership of this mark. Finally, it may be an admission how the mark is not inherently distinctive.
While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s desire to be registered on the primary Register, a supplemental registration has benefits associated with its own. In fact, some entities choose to have a brand that tells consumers what is actually always they are offering (e.g. Pizza Restaurant) as opposed a good inherently distinctive mark (.e.g. Domino’s) that requires effort to create consumer recognition. Such marks are not going to warrant principal placement, whilst they be supplementally disclosed. After five years on the Supplemental Register, the mark may qualify for the principal Register due going without having acquired distinctiveness. It is worth noting that both allow the owner to use the registered trademark symbol, sue in federal court, and advantages of certain international treaties.
Thus, any registration with the USPTO is better than having no trademark registration at all. While ultimately the Principal Register provides the best results and best protection, the Supplemental Register should be considered where an entity prefers what may be a merely descriptive mark at the outset or didn’t acquire the requisite distinctiveness to be registered on where many deem as favored spot.