We’ve sent off the Trademark Application

Ryan Carson | The Logo, Amigo | Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006

Photo of the trademark app and cheque

I’ve been putting this off because it’s one of those really boring paper work things (yuck). Once I finally did it though, it proved to be very easy (took me about one hour). Here’s the steps I took:

  1. Searched the trademark database for similar items (we’re good, phew!)
  2. Downloaded the TM3 form
  3. Printed out our logo and taped it to the correct place
  4. Filled out the form
  5. Chose category 9 and 42 as they applied to Amigo
  6. Signed it
  7. Wrote a cheque for £250
  8. Sent it off!

Hooray! Now we just hold our breath and hope we get it. If we don’t it means we have to start over with the logo and branding. Not good considering we’re launching soon.

26 Comments »

  1. Thanks for the overview of the process. What’s the deal with international trademarks?

    Comment by John Topley — May 23, 2006 @ 12:36 pm

  2. Why’d you put the mark in black and white if color was such an important part of your branding?

    Comment by Greg — May 23, 2006 @ 1:00 pm

  3. We recently submitted our trademark application using the online service, which I found very easy and helpful. Once you’ve done it you contact them to arrange payment - we did it by card over the phone. The online service is accessible from http://www.patent.gov.uk/tm/forms/tm3/index.htm

    Comment by David Mytton — May 23, 2006 @ 1:34 pm

  4. I’m with John. What’s the deal with trademarks internationally. Is there agreeemnts betwen certain countries to respect trademarks our do you need to trademark in each country you are interested in?

    Comment by Anthony Richardson — May 23, 2006 @ 2:10 pm

  5. Are trademarks really that important in this whole long-tail ‘Web 2.0′ age? I’m interested as to why it’s considered important.

    When you’re in retail, it’s important, as you don’t want competitors putting their products on the shelf to be confused with yours. With Web apps, however, they get linked by sites like TechCrunch, blogs, etc, and it’d be extremely hard to ‘rip off’ an entire trademark successfully.

    I’d say that less people register trademarks nowadays than those who do, so I guess I don’t see why you’d be willing to throw the possibility of having to redo the entire logo and branding out there when it probably wouldn’t gain you much?

    Comment by Peter Cooper — May 23, 2006 @ 2:13 pm

  6. Yup, I’d be interested in why you applied for a trademark too.

    Comment by Chris Gwynne — May 23, 2006 @ 2:42 pm

  7. Thanks for the overview of the process. What’s the deal with international trademarks?

    Our philosphy is this: get the UK trademark first. If the app succeeds, then go global. Getting an international trademark is really expensive and time consuming.

    Why’d you put the mark in black and white if color was such an important part of your branding?

    The colours really aren’t the essence of the logo. In fact, we want the freedom to change the colours if we need to.

    Are trademarks really that important in this whole long-tail ‘Web 2.0′ age? I’m interested as to why it’s considered important.

    If you ever want to sell your app, you bet it’s important! Buyers will be very hesitant to purchase the app if they can’t be sure your own the trademark to the logo/name.

    Comment by Ryan Carson — May 23, 2006 @ 2:54 pm

  8. Even if you launched the app while the trademark is in process, could you slap the TM on the logo and let it ride?

    Or am I missing something about slapping the TM on something that isn’t TM.

    Obviously, if it isn’t trademarked, don’t. But is the ball is rolling, why not?

    Lay some education down on a noob.

    Comment by Hal! — May 23, 2006 @ 4:03 pm

  9. Hi Hal,
    I would say don’t slap the TM on until you have the TM. This is because applying for a trademark is by no way a guarantee that you will succeed with your application. When we built DropSend our first application for a TM was rejected and we had to change the name and reapply for the trademark before we could launch. Wait until you get the bit of paper that says you own the trademark - “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings” as they say.

    Comment by Gillian Carson — May 24, 2006 @ 6:28 am

  10. Hey there, interesting read. Is the £250 for the service or the trademark, IE, if they reject your application do you get your money back? I assume you do, but just checking.

    Comment by Matt Dempsey — May 24, 2006 @ 8:33 am

  11. @Matt

    Unfortunately you do not get a refund if the application is unsuccessful. There is a search and advisory Service where you pay £94 for them to conduct a search and provide you with a report detailing if your mark will be accepted or not, but you would still have to pay the £200 (£50 extra class) to register it but at least if your logo was not to be accepted you only lose out on £94

    Even if your logo gets the approval and is registered by the patent office there is still the risk of someone objecting to it as the application is posted in a public database for like 3 months (don’t quote me on that)

    Good luck Ryan

    Comment by Michael Grinstead — May 24, 2006 @ 1:07 pm

  12. Gillian,

    Thanks for the info. Mucho appriciated.

    Comment by Hal! — May 24, 2006 @ 8:32 pm

  13. Uh! Bank of Scotland! Evil!

    Good luck with the application though :)

    Comment by 3stripe — May 24, 2006 @ 11:07 pm

  14. Perhaps this is different in the UK (though I suspect it is not), but you can establish a Trademark through legitimate use — without registering. “TM” (or “SM”) is how you assert your claim. After registering and having your Trademark accepted, you use the circle-R mark (®). Here’s some more info from the USPTO: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/doc/basic/register.htm

    Comment by Tony — May 25, 2006 @ 7:31 pm

  15. Well, people do get upset about trademarks don’t they! There’s fair old bru-ha ha going over at O’Reilly due to its claim to the Web 2.0 conference name. http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/05/controversy_about_our_web_20_s.html

    I find it amazing how most people assume that they are trying to take over the generic phrase Web 2.0 when all they are trying to do is protect their conference brand.

    Comment by Gillian Carson — May 27, 2006 @ 7:54 am

  16. Why is Bank of Scotland evil, 3stripe?

    Comment by Gillian Carson — May 27, 2006 @ 7:55 am

  17. Reminds me of the great HimALayas debate

    Comment by ksczzya — May 30, 2006 @ 3:20 pm

  18. The Female Talent turns around. Her back is now facing the camera.

    Comment by fzpqpha — May 30, 2006 @ 9:39 pm

  19. I don’t know if the British patent office encompasses US trademarks, but the logo might have difficulties passing the USPTO, since the logo is similar to the TBS logo - http://www.tbs.com/.

    Comment by Yoko — May 31, 2006 @ 12:00 am

  20. Good luck with the UK Patent Office. We applied for a trademark for a new project and had it rejected - goodbye 250 quid :(

    We should’ve paid 80 quid for their consultation service. Lesson learned.

    Comment by Garri — June 13, 2006 @ 11:10 pm

  21. I’m interested in knowing if you patent the idea for a web app as well as the logo?

    Comment by matt — June 21, 2006 @ 11:24 am

  22. […] Hoewel dit alles je wellicht niet week in de knieën zal maken (nieuwsbrieven zijn immers zó 2000) is het de blog die het verschil maakt. Hier zie je echt hoe het er in de keuken van een Web 2.0 app aan toe gaat. Bijvoorbeeld hoe je van een krabbel op je schetsblok tot een logo komt, wat er gebeurt als je een nieuw kantoor betrekt of hoe een trademark wordt behaalt. Stap voor stap kun je volgen hoe dit product richting launch-status gaat. Een hoop ervaringen dus, die je niet mag missen.Tags: web2.0, web 2.0, amigo, barenakedapp, email, ads […]

    Pingback by BlueAce » De naakte waarheid van Amigo — June 21, 2006 @ 2:51 pm

  23. Getting a patent is quite difficult, particularly in the UK and EU for something like a web app. You have to show that it is novel and unique. The general policy is to limit patent applications for items such as web apps as it can be anti-competitive.

    However, it is easier in the US. Amazon managed to get a patent granted for their “one click” ordering system. Other companies now have to licence it, for example Apple on their own site.

    But, there is a backlash going on in the US about this as some people attempt to register patents for anything they think other people may use in the future - so setting up a nice lawsuit and damages claim - they call them “patent monkeys”.

    Patent applications are expensive, but if you get one it will increase the value of your product to outside investors and companies looking to buy you.

    Just think of the commercial advantage Google has gained from “Page Rank” and MS and Yahoo cannot use the concept.

    Comment by Patrick — July 6, 2006 @ 9:37 am

  24. Hi Patrick,

    Thanks for your feedback. However we haven’t applied for a patent, we’ve applied for the trademark.

    I’m no laywer but I’m pretty sure these are two different things.

    There’s nothing new in the matching technology that we’re using to get advertsisers to talk to newsletter owners so I don’t think we can patent that. Even if really, really wanted to.

    However, we can trademark both the service and the brand that the service uses, which is what we’ve applied for.

    I don’t think trademarks are difficult to get so long as you are first to market and your branding doesn’t ape anyone else’s brand that is in a similar market.

    Comment by Gillian Carson — July 6, 2006 @ 2:22 pm

  25. […] As I’m sure most of you have, I’ve been keeping up with Ryan’s Barenaked App blog that follows the build of his latest project, Amigo. When it came time to register our trade mark i followed his simple guide. […]

    Pingback by PingBase » Blog Archive » Trademarking Pingbase — July 13, 2006 @ 10:31 pm

  26. It will be interesting to here how you make out…

    Comment by Rich S — December 30, 2006 @ 4:31 am

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