A trademark attorney is your defense against those who try to compromise your brand, your reputation, or your business name in Tampa. Stop others from impersonating your product or business name. If someone is infringing your intellectual property, let the team at Larson and Larson help you take action.
What Does a Trademark Attorney Handle?
A trademark attorney typically protects logos, emblems, brand names, marks, stamps, symbols, and words that are registered legally to represent particular products or services. These symbols and words identify the source of the goods and services. When a business builds a sought-after reputation, others sometimes try to knock off the products. Fraudulent attempts to steal a logo are numerous. Some operate under that name. Others try to reproduce the brand to identify with the quality that the product stands for. When this happens, the original owner’s reputation and profits are compromised.
What Can a Trademark do For My Business?
No matter how you choose to identify your company or product line, the symbol, word, or image you select becomes synonymous with your brand. The logo becomes the identity of the product or entity in question. As your product gains its reputation for quality, the value of the symbol increases. It can be used for marketing purposes as you advertise in print and online. Often, a whole color scheme can belong to a brand because of how companies advertise their logos. Once you have your trademark registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, you have presumptive legal rights to the exclusive use of your mark.
Your trademark attorney in Tampa can help you through the process of registering the word, symbol, or mark with which you identify. Once you complete the registration process, you own exclusive rights to the mark, and you can safely manage your reputation for years to come.
Doesn’t Common Law Protect Unregistered Trademarks?
Common law gives you some rights to your logo simply by using it in Tampa commerce. However, registering your mark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office secures your trademark and gives you presumptive rights to enforce your mark. This enables your trademark attorney to take action on a federal level with presumptions of use and ownership, if your brand is infringed. Once your mark is legally registered, you can notify the public by using the ® symbol. Securing your brand name in the United States gives you opportunities to apply for registration in other countries with priority claims to your pending application or registered mark. Internationally, common law may not protect your name, so you may need to take further steps for protecting your brand.
What Happens If Someone Infringes Upon My Trademark?
If you already have a trademark that is somehow compromised, your trademark attorney can help you file a claim against those who are reaping the benefits of your brand. When a mark is infringed, the Tampa owner can suffer in a major way.
- Customers may lose respect for the original brand when an infringing company operates under the same mark with reduced quality.
- The original item may start to depreciate in value because of the inauthentic versions competing against it.
- Clients may become overly cautious when dealing with the brand because they are unable to differentiate between what is real and fake.
- The business may lose profits in Tampa and abroad.
- You risk diluting and tarnishing your brand’s name.
The cost of securing your brand name is nothing compared to the profit loss from fraudulent replicas of your product. Knowing your Tampa company’s trademark is legally protected allows you the confidence to advertise knowing that if anything should happen, your trademark attorney can help. Your lawyer can take action against the infringer and retrieve some or all of the profit loss you have lost.
Secure Your Brand with Larson and Larson
No matter your industry or product, a trademark attorney can help preserve your good name and reputation in Tampa. Your brand is important for your company’s reputation, which is why protecting it from infringement should be a top priority. Give Larson and Larson a call at 727-546-0660 and let us help you through the registration process today.