Brian Russ Law, Inc. is a California trademark law office centered on helping corporations build and protect their brands and their business. We understand the need to differentiate your brand from your competitors. A small business owner and serial entrepreneur, attorney Brian understands 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 across the Golden State work through common branding 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 Walnut Creek, then you’ve come to the right place. You can also check out our trademark-specific website at BrianTheTrademarkLawyer.com.

What Is A Trademark Attorney?

A trademark lawyer is a attorney who specializes in practicing in the field of trademarks. Trademark lawyers 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 Walnut Creek, like Brian Russ Law, Inc. 

How Can a Trademark Attorney Support Your Business?

Protecting brands is a trademark lawyer's primary role. Companies need to weigh brand protection before they launch or shortly thereafter. Our firm's seen many companies make the oversight of spending tens 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 protection is important for startups, especially those that depend on their branding to engage markets. 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 Law Fim

The worst thing a business owner can do to protect their name is to do nothing. 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 attorney can help any size business in any industry across the world secure trademark protection in the United States. When choosing a trademark attorney, consider their experience and online reviews as well as how personable they are. As an entrepreneur, it's important to find a lawyer who you can talk to comfortably about your campaign. This will be the best route for your brand. 

The Top Three Areas Small Businesses Need Trademark Support

1.	BUSINESS NAME REGISTRATION
A lot of creatives think that setting up an LLC or a DBA/FBN statement means their name is trademarked to protect from challenge. This is not true. Securing an LLC or a Fictitious Business Name Statement does not equal trademark protection. Name protection is stronger with a federal trademark from the USPTO rather than use-based state common law trademark rights. If you want to use your name for your business, you can get governmental approval but those agencies don't verify with the federal trademark database. As a business owner, you need to hire an attorney to find out if your company name infringes on someone else's trademark. 
2. BRAND PROTECTION
Most small businesses need to protect their brands. Imagine this – you start a burger shop on the main drag of Walnut Creek called “Tommy Tequila’s Good Eats” and you spend decades establishing your reputation. But you don’t take steps to federally register your trademark for “Tommy Tequila’s Good Eats”. Life can be a gamble sometimes. You end up in Vegas and find out that your restaurant has the same name as a brand new restaurant on The Strip. 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. Another tricky 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.
It is important to have a playbook in place in case someone infringes on your brand. There are many situations where someone might accidentally infringe your brand. Sometimes, having a attorney send a cease-and-desist notice to the infringer will make them stop. If someone is intentionally copying your brand identity to make a profit, then you will need to take steps to stop them. You could 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 Ready to Serve Walnut Creek Companies

The answer is straightforward – contactconnect 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 brand can help you avoid costly mistakes and give you invaluable peace of mind.