Most people are aware of the numerous benefits of having a trademark registration close to the Principal Register of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In fact, trademark owners are urged by trademark attorneys to select distinctive marks to become to be able to, upon inside interstate commerce, be registered there and have numerous presumptions such as validity, ownership, and notice. However, the Supplemental Register comes with value, especially once the alternative is out of the question initially.
Before the benefits of being supplementally registered is discussed, it is important to understand that that your supplemental registration does not provide. Marks frequently relegated to the Supplemental Register because, at the request of the USPTO examining attorney, the marks are merely descriptive and therefore not a distinctive identifier of supply of the services or goods to which the objective pertains. Such placement does not afford the exclusive right also included with the mark in commerce in experience with its identified services or goods. Equally important, it does not serve as prima facie evidence belonging to the validity of the registered mark or of the trademark registrant’s ownership of this mark. Finally, regardless of how an admission how the mark is not inherently distinctive.
While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s desire to be registered on the main Register, a supplemental registration has benefits of its own. In fact, some entities choose to have a brand that tells consumers what is actually always they are offering (e.g. Pizza Restaurant) as opposed a good inherently distinctive mark (.e.g. Domino’s) demands effort to create consumer recognition. Such marks are not going to warrant principal placement, whilst they be supplementally registered. After five years on the Supplemental Register, the mark may qualify for the key Register due to it having acquired distinctiveness. It is worth noting that both allow the owner to use the Registered Trademark Search in India trademark symbol, sue in federal court, and leverage on certain international treaties.
Thus, any registration with the USPTO is better than having no trademark registration at any. While ultimately the Principal Register provides the most benefits and best protection, the Supplemental Register should be considered where an entity prefers what usually a merely descriptive mark at the outset or has failed to acquire the requisite distinctiveness to be registered on where lots of deem as the preferred spot.