Most people know the of the numerous benefits of owning a trademark registration on the Principal Register belonging to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In fact, trademark owners are urged by trademark attorneys to select distinctive marks in a position to be able to, upon use in interstate commerce, be registered there and enjoy numerous presumptions since validity, ownership, and notice. However, the Supplemental Register has the benefit of value, especially when the alternative is your own the question initially.

Before the benefits of being supplementally registered is discussed, when you understand that that your supplemental registration doesn’t provide. Marks are often 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 goods or services to which the objective pertains. Such placement does not spend the money for exclusive right added with the mark in commerce in expertise of its identified services or goods. Equally important, it does not serve as prima facie evidence of this validity of the registered mark or of the trademark registrant’s ownership of the mark. Finally, it is an admission how the mark is not inherently distinctive.

While these drawbacks obviously warrant a mark owner’s hopeful registered on the main Register, a supplemental registration has primary advantages of its own. In fact, some entities choose to possess a Online Brand Name Registration India 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, whilst they be supplementally outlined. After five years on the Supplemental Register, the mark may qualify for the primary Register due to it 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 most benefits and best protection, the Supplemental Register should be considered where an entity prefers what may be a merely descriptive mark at the outset or did not acquire the requisite distinctiveness to be registered on where many deem as favored spot.