Trademark Rights and Market Territory

A Major Advantage of Trademark Registration.

Trademark rights emerge the moment you start to use your company name in interactions with clients. These are your “common law rights,” also known as “first use” rights. The only requirement is that you are the first to use that name, and that you are using the name in interactions with customers or potential customers. This means if you come up with a unique name, you can sue someone who copies your name for infringement.

However, there are significant limits to your “common law” rights. Most notably, you receive protection only in the geographic territory that you are currently selling in. Your territory is determined by the following four factors:

(1) the volume of sales of the trademarked product;
(2) the growth trends (both positive and negative) in the area;
(3) the number of persons actually purchasing the product in relation to the potential number of customers; and
(4) the amount of product advertising in the area.

This means your market territory with common law rights could be as large as multiple states, or as small as a single town.

If determining market territory is too uncertain or confusing for your liking, there is a simple solution: Register your trademark with the USPTO.

Registering your trademark skips the headache of determining market territory. The entire United States is now your market territory. No headaches, no fights, no uncertainty. You get the whole country.