Whether you just formed your business, or your company is well-established, it is important that you develop a trademark plan. Having practiced intellectual property and trademark law for over twenty years, I highly recommend this as early as possible in your business venture. Your plan will evolve but you definitely want a carefully charted course to protect your brand strategy.

A trademark plan is an outline of your brands and a  roadmap for protecting those brands domestically and internationally. The plan starts with identifying names, logos, taglines, and/or trade dress that you want to protect. Think in terms of the elements of your brand package that are unique to your business and distinctive.

A trademark plan typically involves a discussion with the company’s executive management, marketing team, and product/service teams, along with trademark counsel. The goal is to identify those marks that the company believes are unique and distinctive, and then establish a plan for protecting them.

The 10 steps for developing a trademark plan are to:

1. Identify the company’s trademarks, logos, taglines, and product and service names
2. Determine which marks you want to protect through registration; this involves looking closely at how you plan to use those marks in commerce
3. Narrow the current and future scope of registration including its products and services, so you know which classes of goods and services will be involved
4. Select the countries in which your company is going to file for registration
5. Perform a trademark search by country
6. Adjust your brand strategy and trademarks based on the search results
7. File the trademark applications
8. Track progress toward registration and navigate issues that arise in the examination process
9. Monitor your company’s use of its trademarks and third party’s use ; last but not least,
10. Enforce your trademark rights where appropriate
    
    

    Ted D. Karr, Managing
    Partner