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aangelica · #4 (**permalink**) 08-17-2004, 01:55 AM

Here's the interesting thing about copyrights and trademarks: The rights thereto are pretty much a matter of who does it first.

Theoretically, if you are the first one to bring the product to market under the chosen name, it's your trademark. If someone were to come along later and try to do a similar thing with the same name, you would be well within your rights to send them a cease-and-desist letter and lay claim to your trademark as long as you could establish (via marketing literature, documented sales, etc) that you did it first. (Been there, done that.)

But, certainly, by taking the extra step to register the trademark you would be documenting your ownership rights at the federal level, thereby giving you added protection and leverage that would come in handy in a legal dispute.

Assuming no one currently owns the trademark, you could run with it now (take the product to market) while your application is under review, or wait til the trademark registration goes thru.

Just a heads up, I've seen these things take up to a year as far as the process. In some cases, I've seen the paperwork come back from the USPTO almost a year after submittal only to be told that "more information is required" or the application otherwise needs further wording/clarification in order to be processed. Of course, good things come to those who wait.

That shouldn't stop you from shopping your business plan around in the meantime . . . but make sure you get a signed non-disclosure agreement before letting other eyes see it, and keep a record of who received a copy of the plan and when--this includes everyone from venture capitalists to "friends"! CYA.