Brian Russ Law, Inc. is a California trademark law office focused on helping companies build and protect their brands and their business. We appreciate the need to distinguish your brand from your competitors. A small business owner and serial entrepreneur, attorney Brian gets the struggles of small business owners and how securing brand protection is critical when setting your business apart from the competition. Brian works with businesses across the Golden State 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 support in Castro Valley, then you’ve come to the right place. You can also check out our trademark-specific website at BrianTheTrademarkLawyer.com.
Castro Valley’s Trademark Attorney
What Is A Trademark Attorney?
A trademark lawyer is someone with experience in trademark registration, protection, and litigation support who regularly works with creatives. You can hire a trademark attorney to assist give you peace of mind that your logo is protectable and available for your exclusive use. When choosing a lawyer to protect you’re the brand of your business, make sure to work with a lawyer who has no problem working in Castro Valley, like Brian Russ Law, Inc.
How Can a Trademark Lawyer Empower Your Business?
A trademark lawyer's job is bedeviling simple - to help companies protect their brand. Businesses need to assess brand protection before they launch or shortly thereafter. The amount of money businesses spend on start-up products and marketing is enormous, and sometimes, they find out that their preferred name can't be used because another competitor has locked up the name. Intellectual property protection is important for startups, especially those that depend on their branding to engage markets. If you need to get the name of your brand trademarked, give us a call.
What To Look For In a Trademark Lawyer
The worst thing a business owner can do to protect their name is to do nothing. Doing trademark work without an attorney's support is just as problematic as doing nothing. We find the best trademark attorneys are like us - experienced in helping businesses of all sizes from across the globe in a variety of industries. When you're looking for legal counsel for your trademark, the most important things are their experience and how personable they are. Your attorney should be someone you can talk to about your brand. The better the synergy, the more your brand will thrive.
The Top Three Areas Small Businesses Need Trademark Support
1. BUSINESS NAME REGISTRATION
Creatives often think LLCs and DBA/FBN statements keep their names from being violated and that they are not violating others. This is not accurate. Securing an LLC or a Fictitious Business Name Statement does not equal trademark protection. Brand protection is stronger with a federal trademark from the USPTO rather than time-based state common law trademark rights. So you can get their clearance to use your business name, but you’re still exposed to potential trademark infringement liability because your name might infringe on someone’s trademark. 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 hamburger shop on the main drag of Castro Valley called “Tommy Tequila’s Good Eats” and you spend years building your reputation. Your customers know your business and know your brand, but you don’t federally register your brand’s name. Imagine going to Las Vegas and finding a brand new restaurant with the same name as your business in neon lights. Without federal trademark protection, you are limited when it comes to enforcement and protection, meaning there’s little you could do to stop the Vegas restaurant from using your name. An even more common – and still difficult – situation is what to do if your name brand slogan was federally protected by a third party before you started using yours.
3. INFRINGEMENT STRATEGY.
It is important to have a plan in place in case someone infringes on your name. There may be cases where people infringe on your trademark without realizing it. Sometimes, having a law firm send a cease-and-desist notice to the infringer will make them stop. In other cases, where the infringer is intentionally and maliciously infringing your brand, you need to be prepared to take steps to fight them. You may need to file a state suit for a temporary and permanent injunction to stop the infringer, plus you can try to recover damages including attorney’s fees.
Trademary Attorney Brian Russ is Available to Serve Castro Valley Companies
The answer is easy – callconnect with} Brian Russ Law, Inc. today. We’re fielding calls from potential new clients every day. Having an attorney on your team to protect your logo can help you avoid costly mistakes and give you invaluable peace of mind.