Get An International Trademark For Your Protection
If you own your own business, you want to give your business a brand name and even a logo you use to gain business recognition which is important with regards to growing your business. You need to trademark your business name and logo in order to keep it protected. If not protected, then someone else can come along and start using your company name and/or your logo. Also, there are some who like to claim a company's name and/or logo in order to hold the company financially hostage, offering it back to them for a large fee. If you're not well-versed with international trademarks, this information will be of use to you.
Registering your trademark in the United States
You want to begin by registering your trademark in the US. You will register it through the United States Patent and Trademark Office. To do so, you'll need to make sure to do a search to verify no one else is already using it. You'll also need to file online and pay a fee.
Registering your trademark in different countries
Registering an international trademark is very important if you have clients or sell products internationally. A trademark you have in the US won't protect you in other countries. The Madrid System is what you'll be interested in. This is the international trademark system and the World Intellectual Property Organization administers this system; this organization is in Switzerland. The good news is, you do not need to travel to Switzerland to take care of getting this trademark.
Instead, you can take care of your international trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. As long as the country you want to register for allows for the mark to be protected in that country, you can take care of things by filing your international application with the US office. You will need to pay the fee and send your application either electronically via their website or by sending in the application and a paper form of payment to the US office.
Conclusion
If you have any doubts about your ability to file or you just don't want to deal with it yourself, then there are attorneys that help with the process. The most important thing is that you get it done before you find your intellectual property being used by someone else and then you'll have a real problem you need to deal with.
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