Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[iPostNak3d]

good day everyone.

i am a former college student going after my dream: run a website that will provide some info and fun to my cyber users... and of course... try to make some cash so i can pay off my student loan faster.

so here i am doing some research and looking for some help. i will try to make myself clear here as much as possible... please bear with me!

i came up with a name that was the junction of two words when i was in school. i then registered internet domains with the word. i picked .com and .net just to be safe.

i came up with a logo, which is the name itself plus the "cent" symbol and the ending ".com". i use colors on the logo but are not always the same colors. sometimes i use: green, black, white and yellow. it depends on what kind of background color i use.

i want to create a  website similar to those coupon websites, similar to the sites couponcabin and fatwallet.

the idea above is the main idea for the site.

i will also run an online store that will contain items such as t-shirts, mugs, hats, etc., of designs i create myself that are related to the name of the site. so i will have t-shirts that will have my logo stamped on, hats that will have "sayings/statements" on them, etc.

here is my question: to protect my idea and work... do i go for a SERVICE MARK or TRADEMARK?

what class should i go for?

if in case i have to do both, a service mark and a trademark, can i do one first and then the other later?

the reason i ask is that i have to take baby steps at the moment... as i am not in the best financial situation

i am going after my goal here folks... so i can make some extra income and pay for the first goal of mine that i conquered not too long ago... which was... completing college

thank you all kindly for all of your advices... and sorry for the long thread here

take care.

[iPostNak3d]

***UPDATE***

after doing some research today, i found the site "trademarkia". this site let me do some looking at some of the sites i mentioned on my first post... that i wanted my future site to be like.

not sure if this "trademarkia" is a good source for info or not... but it seems that if i want to create a coupon site similar to "fatwallet", "couponcabin", etc., it seems that i need a SERVICE MARK.

i also saw some info there in regards to "sections"... some said section 8 and 15 accepted. what are these? are these the same ones that i will have to file under?

i also saw there the "mark drawing code" info. the site fatwallet had the description: typeset (Words/letter/Number). will this also be the same for me?

thank you again.

[Kaitlin]

I am not familiar with Trademarkia and can't comment on their service, but before you pay for anyone's services to help you, it would be good to have at least a good understanding of some trademark basics. 

These may be helpful for that:
http://www.ideafinder.com/guest/glossary/g-trademark.htm -- nice introductory overview to put things in context
http://www.gimmelaw.com/trademark-law -- also a general overview (has at least one technical error, but not of consequence).
http://www.arvic.com/library/dodofuse.asp  -- decent intro with practical guidelines for businesses
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/metaschool/fisher/domain/tm.htm  -- more thorough and authoritative than the others, read this last.

You'll find in the reading that it doesn't really matter whether you use the term service mark or a trademark.  Technically, a service mark is for services and trademark is for the sale of goods.  But the term "trademark" is often used to include service marks and the law of trademarks applies equally to both.  And the registration process is the same for both.  You'll also learn that (in the U.S.) you develop trademark rights by using a mark appropriately, not by registering it.  Registration enhances rights, but doesn't create them.  You can begin the registration process before use, however, by an "intent-to-use" application -- get's you "dibs" on the mark as of the the date of application, but the mark still won't be registered until you show it's being used in interstate commerce. 

As for the references to "8" and "15," those are nothing you need to worry about now.  They refer to sections of the trademark law requiring certain filings for existing registrations.   See, e.g., http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/process/maintain/prfaq.jsp and http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/teas/reg_maintain.jsp.

Whether it's better to register a mark with multiple classes of use in a certain class for services or certain classes of goods is going to be a judgment call.  Remember you do have rights just from using the mark, but it may be worth paying for an extra class to make it easier to enforce the rights if there's infringement in that class.  There's a list of the international class numbers with descriptions of the classes at
http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/notices/international.jsp


After you've gone through the readings and the list of class numbers, feel free to come back with more questions.