Brian Russ Law, Inc. is a California trademark law office centered on helping companies build and protect their brands and their business. We get the need to differentiate your brand from your competition. A small business owner and serial entrepreneur, attorney Brian sees the difficulties of small business owners and how securing brand protection is critical when setting your business apart from the competition. Brian works with companies throughout California work through common trademarking issues like clearance searches, infringement assessment, trademark registration, USPTO office action responses, infringement litigation, use defense, and more. If you’re looking for top-notch trademark legal guidance in Alameda, then you’ve come to the right place. You can also check out our trademark-specific website at BrianTheTrademarkLawyer.com.
Alameda’s Trademark Attorney
What Is A Trademark Attorney?
Small businesses should spend their time running their company and not getting distracted with the intricacies of trademark law, which should be left to a trademark lawyer. You can hire a trademark attorney to help give you peace of mind that your brand is protectable and available for your exclusive use. When choosing a lawyer to protect you’re the logo of your enterprise, make sure to work with a lawyer who has no problem working in Alameda, like Brian Russ Law, Inc.
How Can a Trademark Attorney Support Your Business?
A trademark lawyer's job is to help businesses protect their brands and make sure other people don't infringe on them. Businesses need to consider brand protection before they launch or shortly thereafter. Our firm's seen many start-ups make the oversight of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on merchandise and putting in hours of marketing time only to find out they can't use their preferred logo or name. Intellectual property is a critical issue for startups, especially when the brand and recognition are primary drivers of revenue from target markets. If you need to get the name of your company trademarked, give us a call.
What To Look For In a Trademark Lawyer
Doing nothing to protect your name can cause problems for a business entrepreneur. Equally problematic to doing nothing when working on trademarks is to do-it-yourself without an attorney's support. We find the best trademark lawyers are like us - experienced in helping businesses of all sizes from across the globe in a variety of industries. When choosing a trademark counselor, consider their experience and online reviews as well as how personable they are. It’s important to find an attorney with who you can comfortably discuss brand strategy because that will lead to the best synergy for your company.
The Top Three Areas Small Businesses Need Trademark Support
1. BUSINESS NAME REGISTRATION
We commonly see business owners think that setting up an LLC or filing a DBA/FBN statement means their company name is trademarked and safe from dispute. This is not correct. Setting up an LLC or a Doing Business As Statement does not equal trademark protection. The problem is that the Secretary of State and your county recorder don’t cross-reference business names with the trademark list. The government allows you to choose your business name, but they don’t check to see if your name is trademarked. It's important for a business owner to retain legal counsel to help them assess the risks and benefits of their business name.
2. BRAND PROTECTION
Most small businesses need to protect their brands. Imagine this – you start a taco shop on the main drag of Alameda called “Tommy Tequila’s Good Eats” and you spend years establishing your reputation. Your customers know your business and know your brand, but you don’t federally register your brand’s name. Then, you happen to go to Vegas for the weekend, and you find a year-old restaurant with the same exact name as your business. Sadly, your options for enforcement and protection would be limited since you have no federal protection for your brand’s name and the Vegas pub is across state lines. An even more common – and still tricky – situation is what to do if your name brand logo was federally protected by a third party before you started using yours.
3. INFRINGEMENT STRATEGY.
Make sure you have a playbook in place to protect your name if someone infringes your brand. There may be cases where others infringe on your trademark without realizing it. Sometimes, having a law firm send a demand notice to the infringer will make them stop. If someone is intentionally copying your trademark identity to make a profit, then you will need to take steps to stop them. A state lawsuit might be necessary to obtain a temporary and permanent injunction to stop the infringer. You can also try to recover damages including lost profits.
Trademary Lawyer Brian Russ is Here to Serve Alameda Companies
The answer is easy – contactconnect with} Brian Russ Law, Inc. today. We’re fielding inquiries from potential new clients every day. Having an lawyer on your team to protect your logo can help you avoid costly mistakes and give you invaluable peace of mind.