The World Wide Web is almost 30 years old and businesses and regulatory bodies have changed to accommodate the challenges that it constantly beings, including the rise of social media, adding layers of complexity to intellectual property protection.
The agency that registers trademarks in the USA, The United States Patents and Trademark Office or USPTO carefully searches for existing information and many of its rulings take into consideration what is published in electronic platforms.
This is the basic lowdown about intellectual property, the internet, and social media.
Buying an URL, or creating an Instagram or Facebook page does not protect the name or a brand as trademark.
While the use of a trademark or brand is valid online, this does not mean that a domain name or social media page is a registered trademark or that the use of an identical or similar mark is a trademark infringement.
Buying a domain name or creating a social media page can't stop others from using a brand or trademark in other environments or as the name for product or services.
"Is very important to understand that a registered domain name is not synonymous with a registered trademark. It does not bring you any further rights", said intellectual property and business attorney Marcos E. Garciaacosta.
This fact underscores the importance of registering your trademarks with the government through USPTO, which has jurisdiction in the largest market of the world and offers a big influence in the rest of the intellectual property jurisdictions.
USPTO agents spend a good amount of time carefully searching and researching each trademark application, to avoid overlapping of trademarks and usually do not grant a trademark registration to a newly used mark if it conflicts with a previously registered trademark that appears online.
Still, trademark infringement or overlapping may exists in the wide world web.
You may fight with an internet provider for the use of a registered trademark. The key to winning this kind of online disputes is determined by who used the trademark first, if the trademark has been registered and when that happened.
A good trademark attorney can save you time and money, assessing the need to dispute trademark infringement by a domain name or social media platform.
"The internet is this giant showcase of intellectual property that must be protected by its owners", said Marcos.
Trademark Attorney Marcos E. Garciaacosta can not only file trademarks with USPTO for you but is happy to assist you with internet providers' disputes on the use of your brands. Very importantly, he can help you to craft a whole intellectual property strategy and plan to protect your business' valuable intangible assets.
Schedule a consultation at (480) 324-6378.