Brian Russ Law, Inc. is a United States trademark legal firm fixated on helping companies build and protect their brands. We get the need to distinguish your brand from your competitors. A small business owner and serial entrepreneur, lawyer Brian recognizes the difficulties of small business owners and how securing brand protection is vital when setting your business apart from the competition. Brian works with businesses across the USA 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 guidance in Hartselle, Alabama, then you’ve come to the right place.
“Hold up,” you may be thinking, “I saw Brian Russ Law, Inc. a California law office? Can they help clients outside of California, like in Hartselle or Alabama?” Yes! We help businesses worldwide with trademark registration support services. The United States Patent Trademark Office allows lawyers licensed anywhere in the United States to represent clients in USPTO proceedings. Also check out our trademark-specific web presence at BrianTheTrademarkLawyer.com.
Hartselle’s Trademark Lawyer
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. Trademark attorneys can generally do most work on a flat-fee basis and operate independently of the larger firms that bill too much for too little. When choosing a lawyer to protect you’re the brand of your company, make sure to work with a lawyer who has no problem working in Hartselle, like Brian Russ Law, Inc.
How Can a Trademark Attorney Help Your Business?
A trademark lawyer's job is bedeviling simple - to help creatives protect their brand. Companies need to consider brand protection before they launch or shortly thereafter. Our firm's seen many businesses make the mistake 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. Intellectual property is a critical issue for startups, especially when the brand and recognition are primary drivers of revenue from target consumers. If you want to protect your company name, call us.
What To Look For In a Trademark Attorney
The worst thing a business entrepreneur can do to protect their name is to do nothing. Equally problematic to doing nothing when working on trademarks is to do-it-yourself without an attorney's support. 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 you're looking for legal counsel for your trademark, the most important things are their experience and how personable they are. You should find a lawyer that you are comfortable with discussing company strategy with because that will lead to the best synergy for your brand.
The Top Three Areas Small Businesses Need Trademark Support
1. BUSINESS NAME REGISTRATION
Entrepreneurs 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 Doing Business As Statement does not equal trademark protection. The main issue here is that the Secretary of State and your county recorder don’t cross-reference trademarks with business names. 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
Brand protection is needed for most small businesses. Imagine this – you start a hamburger shop on the main drag of Hartselle} called “Tommy Tequila’s Good Eats” and you spend years building your reputation. You neglect, however, to federally register your business’s name. Imagine going to Las Vegas and finding a new pub 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 pub from using your name. An even more common – and still frustrating – situation is what to do if your name brand logo was federally protected by a third party before you started using yours.
3. INFRINGEMENT STRATEGY.
If you have a brand, then you need a plan on what to do if someone infringes your brand. It's important to be aware of how your trademark might be infringed on by businesses. When an infringement occurs, sending a cease-and-desist notice to the offender can make them stop. If someone is intentionally copying your trademark identity to make themselves rich, then you will need to take steps to stop them. You could need to file a state lawsuit for a temporary and permanent injunction to stop the infringer, plus you can try to recover damages including lost profits.
Trademark Lawyer Brian Russ is Excited to Serve Hartselle} Entrepreneurs
The answer is easy – 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 name can help you avoid costly mistakes and give you invaluable peace of mind.