Trademark Registration Explained for Business Owners

Trademarks protect the name, slogan, and logo of your business. They give you the legal right to stop others from using them, and to take action if someone tries.

For example, let’s say your business name is Aurelix, and your branding colors are gold, white and blue. Say you’ve grown a successful and reputable brand. Some competitors may want to copy your business name or visual identity to trick your customers and cash in on your success. With a registered trademark, you have a strong legal basis to stop them and, if needed, sue for infringement.

What Is a Trademark?

A trademark is any word, symbol, phrase, or insignia representing your brand, products, and services. It’s a type of intellectual property that distinguishes your business from competitors and helps customers identify your brand. A classic example of a trademark is the McDonald’s golden arch.

Here are three ways a trademark helps your business:

Identifies your brand, goods, and services

A trademark enables you to stand out from the crowd. It allows your customers to identify your business, whether at close range or from a distance. For example, if you see a restaurant with yellow golden arches, you’ll quickly know that it’s McDonald’s.

Legally protects your brand

If you register your trademark and a competitor copies it, you have a strong legal basis to sue them for trademark infringement, backed by a federal presumption that the mark is yours. If you haven’t registered your mark, you can still take legal action under common law, but proving ownership and stopping the infringement is harder and limited to the area where you do business.

Protects against fraud or infringement

When you own a trademark, you can attach a symbol to your brand to put competitors and customers on notice that it’s yours. Which symbol you use depends on whether you’ve registered the mark — more on that in the “Using the Trademark Symbol” section below.

Difference Between Owning a Trademark and Registering It

You can claim ownership of a trademark as soon as you begin using it to identify your brand and your goods or services. This is called a common law trademark. It comes with real rights, but they’re limited to the geographic area where you actually use the mark and where your customers recognize it.

Owning an unregistered mark doesn’t mean you’re defenseless. You can still sue a competitor for infringement under common law or under Section 43(a) of the federal Lanham Act, and you can stop someone else from registering a confusingly similar mark. What you don’t get is nationwide protection, a legal presumption of ownership, or the stronger remedies that come with registration. Someone using the same name in a different state, with no knowledge of your business, may be able to keep using it there.

To protect your trademark at the national level, you need to register it with the USPTO (the United States Patent and Trademark Office). A registered trademark offers broader rights and protects your mark in all 50 states, not just where you currently do business.

What Are the Types of Trademarks?

The term trademark is broad. There are several types and categories that fall under it. Let’s look at the types of trademarks:

Trademark

The first type of trademark is simply the term trademark. This type helps identify and distinguish the source of a good or service. In most cases, it’s used to refer to products rather than services.

Service Mark

Service marks help identify the source of a service. You can use this trademark for services such as legal counsel, computer repair, and so on. Although technically different from a trademark, service marks provide the same rights and protections as a trademark.

Strong Trademark

A strong trademark clearly denotes your business, goods, and services. It’s inherently unique and creative, and it offers more protection. With a strong brand identity, you can more easily prevent people from copying or using it without your consent. Examples of a strong trademark include:

Fanciful trademarks

These are invented marks with no meaning other than in the context of the good or service. An example of a fanciful mark is Nike. This word has no meaning in the English language. It only gets meaning once you associate it with the goods or the entity.

Arbitrary trademarks

These trademarks refer to words and names that have a meaning in the English language but are not in any way related to the goods and services offered by the business. A good example is the brand name Apple. We all know apples are fruit, and they have no relation to computers and phones.

Suggestive trademarks

These are names and words that show some quality or nature of the product or service. They give the customer a sense of how they’ll look or feel when using the product. An example is the brand name Jaguar, which implies speed and agility without directly naming a car.

Weak Trademark

Weak trademarks are difficult to protect and are, in most cases, not registrable at the national level. Examples of weak trademarks include:

Descriptive trademarks

This trademark describes the nature of a good or service in an obvious way. The customer knows what they’ll get once they see the brand name or design. Descriptive trademarks differ from suggestive trademarks in that there’s no subtlety — they don’t require any imagination.

A hypothetical example of a descriptive trademark is a business named “Paul’s Pet Grooming Services.” You already know what service you’ll get and who will most likely provide it. Descriptive trademarks can be federally registrable in some situations, typically once the owner shows the name has become distinctive through years of use.

Generic trademarks

Generic trademarks plainly describe the good or service. They’re the weakest marks and aren’t registrable at the federal level. An example of this is naming your business “Yogurt” because you sell yogurt.

Trade Name

Rather than trademarking a product or service, you can register a trade or business name. In this case, the type of trademark you’re applying for is a trade name.

Trade names denote the business as a whole. For example, if your business sells many branded products, you can trademark each product and separately trademark the business name or DBA.

Trade Dress

Trade dress identifies the design and appearance of a product’s packaging. It can also cover the exterior and interior design of a business, such as a restaurant.

How to Register a Trademark

Trademarks in the United States are registered with the USPTO (the United States Patent and Trademark Office). The application process is done electronically. Here are the steps to follow when registering a trademark.

1. Conduct a Trademark Search

Before registering a trademark, take time to search for existing marks to make sure your chosen name, logo, or design is available. Searching helps you avoid mistakenly infringing on someone else’s intellectual property.

The USPTO retired its old TESS database in 2023 and replaced it with a newer system simply called Trademark Search. Head to the USPTO’s website, run your trademark through Trademark Search, and proceed with registration once you’ve confirmed the mark appears to be available.

2. File for Federal Trademark Protection

Your next step is to file with the USPTO through its current online filing system, called the Trademark Center. As of January 18, 2025, the USPTO retired the old two-tier TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard filing options and replaced them with a single base application fee of $350 per class.

To pay only the base fee, you need to use a pre-approved description from the USPTO’s Trademark ID Manual and fill out every required field. If you write your own custom description of your goods or services, or leave required information out, surcharges of $100 to $200 per class apply on top of the base fee. A single-class application with a custom description can run $550 or more once surcharges are added, so it’s worth checking the ID Manual first.

Here is the information you’ll typically need to submit:

• Name and contact details of the owner of the trademark.
• Nature of the trademark (words, phrases, numbers, logo, symbol, color, sound, and so on).
• Description of the trademark.
• An example of the mark in use.
• An accurate description of the goods and services associated with the mark.
• A signature with a date.

When applying, you also need to select a filing basis. The four choices are:

• Use in Commerce – for trademarks already tied to goods and services you’re selling or offering.
• Intended to Use – for a mark you plan to use in business but haven’t launched yet. You’ll have up to three years total from your Notice of Allowance, using a series of six-month extensions, to prove you’re using it.
• Foreign Application – for a mark you filed on for the same goods and services in another country within the past six months.
• Foreign Registration – for a mark you already own a foreign registration for, covering the same good or service.

3. Trademark Examination

Once you file your application, the USPTO currently assigns it to an examining attorney in roughly 4 to 5 months on average, based on the agency’s own performance targets as of 2026. The examining attorney will either approve your application or issue an office action — a document requiring you, the applicant, to fix an issue with the application. You generally need to respond within three months of the issue date, with the option to request a single three-month extension for a fee.

The examining attorney may reject your trademark application if the mark is the same as or similar to a preexisting trademark, or if it’s a weak trademark that doesn’t qualify for registration.

Once you file, you can check your application’s status through the Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) portal, using the serial number and confirmation receipt the USPTO issues after you submit.

4. Trademark Approval

Your trademark gets registered if the examining attorney is satisfied with your application and finds the mark fit for registration.

During the process, other trademark owners can oppose your mark if they believe it’s too similar to their own. An opposition doesn’t automatically mean rejection, but it can slow the approval process considerably.

Once approved, the USPTO publishes your mark in the weekly Trademark Official Gazette, which lists newly published, registered, canceled, and renewed trademarks and opens a 30-day window for anyone to oppose your registration.

Filing fees follow the base-fee-plus-surcharge structure described above, and they’re non-refundable regardless of whether your application is approved or rejected.

How to Register a Trademark Internationally

Federal registration is only valid in the United States. If you own an approved or registered trademark with the USPTO, you can register the mark in other countries through the Madrid Protocol.

The Madrid Protocol lets you register your trademark in multiple countries with a single application. You can only register in member countries — those that have joined this international system.

Using a Lawyer Versus Doing It Yourself

The process of registering a trademark is fairly straightforward if you understand the steps. You don’t need an attorney to go through it.

You may still want one if you’re unfamiliar with trademark registration. An attorney can guide you through the application to help you avoid common mistakes.

For example, you need to search for conflicting marks and judge whether you have a weak or strong mark before applying. Doing this reduces the chances of rejection. Remember, the filing fee isn’t refundable. You’ll also need to select a filing basis, among other requirements.

Using the Trademark Symbol

There are three symbols you can use, depending on whether you’ve registered or simply own the mark:

• TM – Stands for “trademark.” Use it when you own the source of goods but haven’t registered with the USPTO.
• SM – The same idea as TM, but for services rather than goods. Registration isn’t required to use it either.
• ® – Stands for “registered trademark.” You can only use this once your mark is officially registered with the USPTO.

Place any of these next to your mark, typically as a superscript or subscript on the right side.

Conclusion

A trademark helps identify your brand and your goods and services. It prevents others from copying or using your intellectual property without your permission.

There are several types of trademarks. Some, like strong trademarks, are federally registrable. Others, like weak trademarks, generally aren’t. You can claim ownership of a mark the moment you start using it to identify your business, goods, or services, but to protect it nationwide, you need to register with the USPTO.

As of 2026, most applications register within about 9 to 12 months, though timelines vary depending on office actions and oppositions. Once approved or registered, you can extend protection internationally through the Madrid Protocol.

You don’t need an attorney to register a trademark, but it’s worth working with one if you’re unfamiliar with the process. The three symbols you can use are TM, SM, and ®, and which one applies depends on whether you deal in goods or services and whether you’ve registered your mark.

FAQ: Registering a Trademark

How long does it take to register a trademark?

• As of 2026, most applications take roughly 9 to 12 months from filing to registration, based on USPTO pendency data, though office actions or oppositions can extend that timeline.

Do I need to register my trademark to have any legal protection?

• No. Using a mark in commerce gives you limited common law rights in the area where you operate, and you can still take legal action against an infringer there. Federal registration extends that protection nationwide and gives you stronger remedies.

How much does it cost to register a trademark?

• As of 2026, the USPTO’s base application fee is $350 per class. Surcharges of $100 to $200 per class can apply if your application uses a custom description or is missing required information.

What’s the difference between TM, SM, and ®?

• TM and SM can be used without registering, for goods and services respectively. The ® symbol is reserved for marks that are officially registered with the USPTO.

Can I register my trademark internationally?

• Yes, through the Madrid Protocol, once your U.S. mark is approved or registered — but only in countries that participate in the system.

References:

• USPTO — Trademark fee information
• tmarkmetric — Trademark Cost 2026: $350 USPTO Fee, Explained
• USPTO — Retiring TESS: What to know about the new trademark search system
• USPTO — New three-month deadline for responding to pre-registration office actions
• TrademarKraft — Understanding USPTO Statement of Use Processing
• USPTO — Trademarks Dashboard
• USPTO — Approval for publication
• Justia — Unregistered Trademarks Under Federal and State Laws
• Patent Trademark Blog — What is a common law trademark?
• USPTO — United States Patent and Trademark Office
• USPTO — Trademark Search
• USPTO — Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR)
• A Touch of Business — How to Register a Business Name
• A Touch of Business — How to Register a DBA