Small business trademark issues

And I’m not talking about a small amount of money. I’m talking about a massive amount of money. Let’s put it this way, the $5or $0you save today by going the do-it-yourself or cheap route to search and register your business and brand names could cost you tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars in the future. A trademark represents your business , products, or services. You can trademark a name, logo, symbol, and even sound that refers to your business.

In most cases, simply notifying the social media site of the infringing profile and providing proof of trademark ownership is enough for the site to shut down the infringing entity’s page.

Strategies on finding buyers and negotiating sales. Advice on legal and business issues. Among the issues you might consider when naming your business is the relationship between your trademark and the domain name of your business. Since you will likely want to use your trade or service mark as the domain name of your web site, a little research early on can save you lots of frustration later.

Most people who start an online business unknowingly neglect trademark issues when naming their business and products. Finding an open domain name is simple, but just because the domain that you want is not registered yet doesn’t necessarily mean that you can do business using that name. Be sure to do plenty of research ahead of naming or renaming your business or launching any new products or services. When a trademark is used in relation to services rather than products, it is sometimes called a service mark.

Here are the biggest challenges presented in a recent report.

Intellectual property law governs the grant of patents, trademarks , copyright, and more. It concludes by discussing what happens after registration and the owner’s responsibility to enforce registration rights. In fact, research conducted by the USPTO found that only percent of small businesses. Opening a small business is an exciting time for every entrepreneur.

In the middle of all that optimism it’s easy to forget about some of the legal issues associated with opening a small business. This guide is going to introduce you to some of the main legal issues every new entrepreneur must think about. According to the most recent study by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), small business owners identified taxes, government regulations and requirements, quality of labor, and poor sales as the top four problems they face today.

The owner of a trademark has exclusive rights to the trademark and can prevent anyone else from using it. Small businesses face a number of legal issues that could range from simple issues with paperwork and filing tax deadlines to the liability with customers that could end in a courtroom battle. Understanding each issue and progressing from the start generally happens through the assistance and support of a lawyer.

This is perhaps the biggest mistake that a small business owner can make: disregarding the legal risks that goes along with opening a business , until it is too late. We’re here to help you avoid this mistake. Here is a list of the most important legal issues to keep in mind as a small business owner. After all, only larger businesses can afford to own and promote brand names.

In fact, your company’s name and logo are its brands, if they are being used to identify the source of the goods or services that your company offers for sale. In this video, Erik Pelton discusses key trademark strategies and issues particular to the needs of small businesses, the backbone of the U. Small business owners must address multiple legal issues to protect themselves and their companies. There are laws for everything from determining the right corporate structure to protecting intellectual property.

Here are five potential small business legal issues that can create problems if they. A quick trademark search should first be done on the Internet, using a search engine to find businesses using the name or slogan. Marks that survive this type of search should also be checked against state and federal registers.

Trademark strategies for small businesses. As with patents, federally registered trademarks can be researched on the PTO database. Understanding some of the most common legal issues of small businesses ahead of time can help you avoid costly lawsuits. Having a solid legal team back you up couldn’t hurt, either.

Small business owners who engage advertising and design companies to create logos, artwork and even websites for the business may be surprised to learn that the copyright in the design and artwork.