Brian Russ Law, Inc. is a United States trademark legal firm focused on helping businesses build and protect their brands. We understand the need to distinguish your brand from your competition. A small business owner and serial entrepreneur, lawyer Brian recognizes the struggles of small business owners and how securing brand protection is vital when setting your business apart from the competition. Brian works with companies across the United States of America work through common trademark 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 Hickory, North Carolina, then you’ve come to the right place.
“Wait a second,” you may be saying, “I heard Brian Russ Law, Inc. a California law office? Can they help clients outside of California, like in Hickory or North Carolina?” Yes! We help entrepreneurs anywhere with trademark registration support services. The USPTO allows lawyers licensed anywhere in the United States to represent clients in USPTO proceedings. Also learn more at our trademark-specific web presence at BrianTheTrademarkLawyer.com.
Hickory’s Trademark Attorney
What Is A Trademark Attorney?
A trademark attorney is someone with experience in trademark registration, protection, and litigation support who regularly works with small businesses. You can hire a trademark lawyer 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 brand of your corporation, make sure to work with a lawyer who has no problem working in Hickory, like Brian Russ Law, Inc.
How Can a Trademark Attorney Help Your Business?
A trademark lawyer's job is to help their clients protect their brands. Companies are in the best position to protect their name if they take a proactive strategy. Our firm's seen so many companies drop hundreds of thousands of dollars on merchandise and marketing only to find that they can't use their preferred name. Intellectual property protection is one of the most important things for startups. That's especially true for companies that rely on their brand recognition to generate customer interest. You can save time and legal costs by calling us to conduct a clearance search prior to launching your brand.
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 our firm - 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 better your company will thrive.
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 challenge. This is not true. Registering an LLC or a Fictitious Business Name Statement does not equal trademark protection. Name protection is stronger with a federal trademark from the United States Patent Trademark Office rather than time-based local common law trademark rights. You can get government approval to use your name for a business, but those agencies will not detect trademark infringement. It’s incumbent on the business owner to retain counsel to assess the trademark risk of using your business name.
2. BRAND PROTECTION
Brand protection is critical for most small businesses. Imagine this – you start a hot dog shop on the main drag of Hickory} called “Tommy Tequila’s Good Eats” and you spend years establishing your reputation. But you don’t take steps to federally register your trademark for “Tommy Tequila’s Good Eats”. Imagine going to Las Vegas and finding a year-old 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. Another hard scenario is how to deal with a cease-and-desist notice when your brand name is the same as one that was federally registered by another company prior to you using yours.
3. INFRINGEMENT STRATEGY.
If you have a brand, then you need a playbook on what to do if someone infringes your brand. There may be cases where others infringe on your trademark without realizing it. Sometimes, having a lawyer 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. A federal lawsuit might be necessary to get a temporary and permanent injunction to stop the infringer. You can also try to recover damages including lost profits.
Trademark Attorney Brian Russ is Excited to Serve Hickory} Entrepreneurs
The answer is straightforward – 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 name can help you avoid costly mistakes and give you invaluable peace of mind.