Brian Russ Law, Inc. is a California trademark law firm 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, lawyer Brian recognizes 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 California work through common brand 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 Westlake, then you’ve come to the right place. You can also check out our trademark-specific website at BrianTheTrademarkLawyer.com.
Westlake’s Trademark Attorney
What Is A Trademark Attorney?
A trademark attorney is a lawyer 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 brand of your enterprise, make sure to work with a lawyer who has no problem working in Westlake, like Brian Russ Law, Inc.
How Can a Trademark Lawyer Empower Your Business?
A trademark lawyer's role is to help their clients protect their brands. Companies are in the best position to protect their brand if they think about brand protection pre-launch or shortly after their launch. Our firm's seen many start-ups make the error 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 brand. Intellectual property protection is a key element for startups - especially those that heavily rely on brand recognition to drive market engagement. Give us a call if you want to lock down your company’s brand with federal trademark protection.
What To Look For In a Trademark Attorney
The best way a business owner can protect their name is to take action. 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 company in any industry across the world secure trademark protection in the United States. When choosing a trademark lawyer, consider their experience and online reviews as well as how personable they are. Your lawyer should be someone you can talk to about your brand. The better the synergy, the better your brand will thrive.
The Top Three Areas Small Businesses Need Trademark Support
1. BUSINESS NAME REGISTRATION
We commonly see creatives think that setting up an LLC or registering a DBA/FBN statement means their brand 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. Brand protection is stronger with a federal trademark from the United States Patent Trademark Office rather than use-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 important for any business owner to retain a lawyer to assess the trademark risk of using their business name.
2. BRAND PROTECTION
Brand protection is critical for most small businesses. Imagine this – you start a taco shop on the main drag of Westlake called “Tommy Tequila’s Good Eats” and you spend decades building your reputation. Your customers know your business and know your brand, but you don’t federally register your brand’s name. You happen to go to Vegas for the weekend, and you find a brand 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. Another frustrating 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 person prior to you using yours.
3. INFRINGEMENT STRATEGY.
Make sure you have a plan in place to protect your name if someone infringes your brand. It's important to be aware of how your brand might be infringed on by others. When an infringement occurs, sending a cease-and-desist notice to the offender can make them stop. If your brand is being purposefully A federal lawsuit might be needed to obtain a temporary and permanent injunction to stop the infringer. You can also try to recover damages including lost profits.
Trademary Attorney Brian Russ is Available to Serve Westlake Creatives
The answer is simple – contactconnect with} Brian Russ Law, Inc. today. We’re fielding inquiries 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.