Practice Areas

Trademark Law

Trademark Attorney in Sacramento California

Trademark law can be extremely confusing to the layperson. At the Costello Law Corporation in Sacramento, our California  trademark lawyer explains the law to our clients in a simple and understandable manner. We represent clients in Sacramento and the surrounding communities, including Fair Oaks, Davis, Auburn, and Roseville. For answers to all of your trademark questions, contact attorney John P. Costello.

What is a Trademark?

A trademark is usually a word or a design logo which is associated with a product and which identifies the seller of the product. For example, “Mustang” identifies a car sold by Ford Motor Company and the famous “Golden Arches” logo identifies hamburgers sold by McDonald’s. In addition to words or logos, anything else that is capable of associating a product with its seller can operate as a trademark. These include colors (Corning “Pink” insulation), sounds (Harley Davidson motorcycle sound) or design shapes (old Coca Cola bottles).

If a word, logo, sound, etc. identifies a service instead of a product, then it is known as a service mark.

Choosing a Strong Trademark

Trademarks exhibit a spectrum of strength. At the weaker end of the spectrum are generic and descriptive marks. A generic mark is the generic word for a product, for example, if you sold shoes, you could not trademark the generic word “shoe” to identify your product. A descriptive term can operate as a trademark as long as it can be established that the mark has acquired a secondary meaning apart from its descriptive meaning. For example, if you sell a Popsicle product and call it “Icy Cool,” this certainly describes its qualities, but if “Icy Cool” becomes a household name for a particular popsicle brand apart from the fact that it is Icy and Cool, then suddenly the descriptive term is now functioning as a trademark.

On the stronger end of the spectrum are words which are either suggestive, arbitrary or coined. A suggestive term suggests some aspect of the mark without giving the whole story away. An example would be “Roach Motel®” which suggests something to do with insects, but generally roaches do not live in motels, so this creates a fanciful association with insects, which is unique and allow this mark to have a strong character. An arbitrary mark creates an arbitrary association between a word and a product, such as “Camel®” for cigarettes. The arbitrary association of an animal, such as a camel with a cigarette product, makes this a strong mark. Last but not least, and definitely the strongest choice of all are coined, or invented words operating as trademarks. This category includes Kodak® or Xerox®, for example. These words are invented and therefore can only operate as trademarks. Without any competing meanings, these words serve as the strongest marks possible.

The Trademark Registration Process: These Steps Help Insure Your Success in the Trademarking Process

Helping You Select the Best Mark for Your Business - Using the trademark spectrum of strength, lawyer John P. Costello will help you choose the best mark to identify your product or service. We even have access to trademark think tanks which can help you invent coined terms for your product.

Education - We will take the time to detail out the trademark process, so you will know what to expect throughout the trademark process.

Search for Availability - Doing your own trademark search using internet resources can only tell part of the story with regard to whether your mark is available for use. Our search resources go much deeper and provide a much clearer picture as to the availability of a mark for use. Having us perform a proper trademark search will help insure that your trademark application will issue into a registration; a proper search also helps insure that you will not run into a conflict with another party using the same mark for the same product.

Draft of Application - We draft the necessary paperwork for a state or federal trademark application and prosecute the application to a successful issuance.

Enforcement of the Trademark - If any company or individual violates our client’s trademarks, we will work with our client to put an immediate end to any infringement.

Please contact the Costello Law Corporation today to learn more about how we can help you with your trademark matter.