Brian Russ Law, Inc. is a California trademark law firm centered on helping corporations build and protect their brands and their business. We appreciate the need to distinguish your brand from your competition. A small business owner and serial entrepreneur, attorney 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 corporations across 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 support in San Mateo, then you’ve come to the right place. You can also learn more at our trademark-specific website at BrianTheTrademarkLawyer.com.
San Mateo’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 entrepreneurs. Trademark attorneys typically have experience in the entire trademark lifecycle from the critical clearance search all the way through litigation support. When choosing a lawyer to protect you’re the logo of your business, make sure to work with a lawyer who has no problem working in San Mateo, like Brian Russ Law, Inc.
How Can a Trademark Attorney Support Your Company?
A trademark attorney’s role is to help their clients protect their brands. Businesses are in the best position to protect their brand if they think about brand protection pre-launch or shortly after their launch. The amount of money companies 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 is a critical issue for startups, especially when the brand and recognition are primary drivers of revenue from target consumers. 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 owner. Even though it's easy to do some trademark forms on your own, you are at risk of doing something wrong and cleaning up the mess will take 5x the time, money, and effort of doing it right in the first place. A good United States trademark lawyer can help any size company in any industry across the globe secure trademark protection in the United States. When you're looking for legal support for your trademark, the most important things are their experience and how personable they are. Your lawyer should be someone you can talk to about your brand. The better the synergy, the better your business will thrive.
The Top Three Areas Small Businesses Need Trademark Support
1. BUSINESS NAME REGISTRATION
We commonly see entrepreneurs think that setting up an LLC or registering a DBA/FBN statement means their company name is trademarked and safe from challenge. This is not correct. Setting up an LLC or a Fictitious Business Name 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. 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 any business owner to retain a lawyer to assess the trademark risk of using their business name.
2. BRAND PROTECTION
Small businesses have a lot to worry about, but brand protection should not be one of them. Imagine this – you start a sandwich shop on the main drag of San Mateo called “Tommy Tequila’s Good Eats” and you spend years building your reputation. You neglect, however, to federally register your business’s name. You happen to go to Vegas for the weekend, and you find a new diner with the same exact name as your business. 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 name was federally protected by a third party before you started 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 are many situations where someone might innocently infringe your brand. In some cases, the infringer will stop when a law firm sends a letter demanding that they 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 might need to file a lawsuit for a temporary injunction and/or permanent injunction to stop the infringer. You can try to recover lost profits as well.
Trademary Attorney Brian Russ is Excited to Serve San Mateo Businesses
The answer is straightforward – contactconnect with} Brian Russ Law, Inc. today. We’re fielding calls 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.