[Hidden-tech] trademark help needed

[Michael Billingsley]

Check back, Margot, to the prior posts about "intellectual property  
law."  Quite a few attorneys were recommended.

Same deal as with your question here - there were a lot of good  
people nearby and in Boston.

There are a number of separate, related questions that come with your  
investigation.

A. Do you have your product trade "mark" (a visual or verbal "image")  
designed?   If not - you might also be looking for a trademark  
designer as part of a branding process and would probably also be  
consulting a graphic artist in that specialisation.

B. Will your product/service have a unique name (or you intend it to  
have a unique name/identity in the marketplace), and is that unique  
name (and any associated phrases) written or originated yet?  If not,  
then an advertising copy-writing specialist might need to be  
consulted to come up with your unique selling name/phrase.

C. If "A" and "B" are already solved - have you secured the  
associated domain names from a domain-name merchant with the .com  
and .net suffixes?  If not, then such might be investigated (on your  
own, through whois) which will also give you hints about the other  
uses of the product/service name.
http://www.internic.net/whois.html

D. Have you searched the U.S. Patent and Trademark database to see if  
the trademark/tradename is available?  If it is already secured by  
another party (and hence not available to you) you will have to go  
through A and B with respective experts to find a suitable, non- 
infringing variant.
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=4008:sfd2bs.1.1

E. You could then, on your own, register the tradename with the  
Secretary of State of Massachusetts (registration fees are involved).

F. Perhaps engage an intellectual-property law attorney to help you  
properly file trademark/tradename registrations on the federal  
level.  They have just about reached the point of on-line filing.

Having consulted with a number of companies in re-branding... as well  
as designed or co-designed international brand identities and non- 
profit identity "slogans" every once and a while... I can say it is  
not particularly daunting to do the filings, etc.   Things have  
gotten considerably more streamlined in that regard.  The wait,  
especially if there is any ambiguity or adjudication, can be a  
problem for some people.

Michael Cerulli Billingsley
Straight Arrow Recordings
Cotton Mill, Brattleboro, VT
Location Recording - CD Mastering - Sound Solutions/FX


On  22 Jul 09, at 8:51 PM, MargotZalkind at aol.com wrote:

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> we have a great new albeit small product and want to protect it.
> Think we trademark help.
> Who can help us wade through this process?
> Do we need a lawyer?
> Thanks all.
>
> Margot Zalkind/ Executive Director/ Foundation for Rowing  
> Education, Inc./Row4All Outreach
> www.rowingeducation.org / Margot at RowingEducation.org/ 413 585 9445
> USRowing Safety Committee Chair
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