Trademark

[Anaisa]

Howdie all; question: has anyone on the site trademarked anything? I mean I looked it up online but was wondering if anyone has experience that they are willing to share...thanks

[Barbara G.]

Hello,

I did some research and did not really come up with anything on this so far. I did see some sites which say "protected by copyright and trademark law." If I find anything else, I will let you know!

[Anaisa]

thanks...cuz what I found is quite expensive to tm

[Mixpixlix]

It's expensive to REGISTER a trademark.

But there's an option. Unless things have changed and you have "first use" of symbol, name, emblem and can prove it, you have a trademark. The easiest way is to mail an original of the trademark to yourself, so you have the date stamp on the envelope.

You cannot trademark anything in common use. For example you can't trade mark the name of a color, or historical figure, or a word group like shopping cart. It must be an original use.

Try a "first use trademark" seach and see if that gets you closer to where you want to be. Also, check trademark regulations for your state.

[Anaisa]

Yeah I read up on that; it's also a way to copyright something too; but I reading they (whoever 'they' are) aren't seeing this as a true trademark...but thanks will look up first use trademark and see what's pop's up...thanks again...

[Anaisa]

OK it is and it isn't a true trademark if you send it to yourself via the post office...because of lawyers and their involvement they are saying that the P.O. isn't a legal like an attorny's office and the P.O. only keeps records supposidly up to 2 - 3 years. With that being said, as one applies for the trademark via the right channel, they have to be using their trademark to 'see' if it is going to be considered a trademark or not....HMMMM so I think if I can't afford the expensive way right now...and my trademark might not make it as such, I think I will send it via the P.O. while I can and just start putting it out there that I have a trademark for my work; I want to write and ask how trademarks work via the internet...because you can have a trademark in one State and someone in another State can have the same one as well and that's not a conflict....but w/ the internet I am curious to how that works....