Most people are aware of the numerous benefits of having a trademark registration close to the Principal Register of your 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 easily use in interstate commerce, be registered there and have numerous presumptions such as validity, ownership, and notice. However, the Supplemental Register even offers value, especially when the alternative is away from the question initially.

Before the primary advantages of being supplementally registered is discussed, advised that you understand that that your supplemental registration doesn’t provide. Marks typically 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 goods or services to which the objective pertains. Such placement does not pay for the exclusive right to use the mark in commerce in connection with its identified goods or services. Equally important, it does not serve as prima facie evidence of this validity of the registered mark or of the trademark registrant’s ownership of the mark. Finally, it may be an admission that the mark is not inherently distinctive.

While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s hopeful registered on the main Register, a supplemental registration has primary advantages of its own. In fact, some entities choose to have a Online Brand Registration in India that tells consumers what is usually they are offering (e.g. Pizza Restaurant) as opposed with regard to an inherently distinctive mark (.e.g. Domino’s) demands effort to create consumer recognition. Such marks are not going to warrant principal placement, although they be supplementally registered. After five years on the Supplemental Register, the mark may qualify for the primary 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 take benefit from certain international treaties.

Thus, any registration with the USPTO is better than having no trademark registration at everything. While ultimately the Principal Register provides the most benefits and best protection, the Supplemental Register should be considered where an entity prefers what may be a merely descriptive mark at the outset or has failed to acquire the requisite distinctiveness to be registered on where many deem as the preferred spot.