Most people understand of the numerous benefits of having a trademark registration within Principal Register of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In fact, trademark owners are urged by trademark attorneys to select distinctive marks in order to be able to, upon handy in interstate commerce, be registered there and enjoy numerous presumptions such as validity, ownership, and notice. However, the Supplemental Register comes with value, especially as soon as the alternative is your own the question at the beginning.

Before the primary advantages of being supplementally registered is discussed, when you understand that that your supplemental registration does not provide. Marks tend to be 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 the source of the goods or services to which the potential pertains. Such placement does not afford the exclusive right to use the mark in commerce in connection with its identified services or goods. Equally important, it does not serve as prima facie evidence of your validity of the registered mark or of the Trademark Consultant in India registrant’s ownership within the mark. Finally, it is an admission that the mark is not inherently distinctive.

While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s should be registered on the key Register, a supplemental registration has great things about its own. In fact, some entities choose to have a brand that tells consumers what everyone they are offering (e.g. Pizza Restaurant) as opposed a good inherently distinctive mark (.e.g. Domino’s) that needs effort to create consumer recognition. Such marks are not going to warrant principal placement, although they be supplementally created. After five years on the Supplemental Register, the mark may qualify for the principal Register due with out having acquired distinctiveness. It is worth noting that both allow the owner to use the registered trademark symbol, sue in federal court, and profit by certain international agreements.

Thus, any registration with the USPTO is better than having no trademark registration at everything. While ultimately the Principal Register provides the best results and best protection, the Supplemental Register should be considered where an entity prefers what usually a merely descriptive mark at the outset or did not acquire the requisite distinctiveness to be registered on where lots of deem as the preferred spot.