Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Making A Trademark For A Home Business Opportunity Online

By Myles Krueger

It is always important to protect yourself and your assets as a business owner of a home business opportunity online. One of the first ways to do this is by getting a trademark approved by the US government in order to protect your company name. This will be important down the road as you get bigger.

In order for you to trademark something you will have to do so with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. They provide a form online called the Trademark Electronic Application System or the TEAS that you can fill out mostly online in order to get a trademark.

Usually this is going to cost around $325 to file the form online, but it will vary based on what you have to accomplish for your trademark. If this is going to be the first time you create intellectual property or a trademark then I suggest that you don't do it yourself and get help. There is a 24 hour customer service number for the USTPO that they provide to help you with the form.

They can only take you so far so I suggest that you get a trademark lawyer that can do the rest for you. There are plenty of trademark lawyers out there that will help you through this whole process and develop a brand that is very unique from other brands that are out there. They can also help with your thought process to make sure that you are filling it out right.

The last thing you want to have to go through is re-applying after you have filled out the form once. It is possible to get declined the getting a response can take months so you don't want to have to go through all that time while your company name is unprotected. Often you can run into this problem because your name is too general or it infringes upon another companies trademark somehow.

If you are an American citizen you can turn in an application, but the same can be said for a non citizen also. You will probably have to get an EIN number in order to turn one in, but there are no worries. If you are out of the country you can always have a domestic representative like a lawyer help you by filling out the form for you.

With how complicated this can be make sure that you keep your name somewhat arbitrary because you never know how your company may change in the next decade or so and your company name might not end up applying to whatever it is that you are now doing. This will save you a lot of hassle of having to go through this process again and develop a whole new brand.

Now that you have figured out a trademark and have it approve take some time to enjoy it because you have possibly your first piece of intellectual property. This will be a lifesaver down the road as you face stiff competition and get bigger.

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