A trademark is your first line of defense, but getting your trademark for your clothing line or logo isn’t easy. It requires numerous steps and a lot of pre-planning – something you should hire a trade secrets attorney to assist you with. If you are starting a new clothing line, there are a few ways to protect it.
Verify You Have a Unique Trademark
The clothing industry is full of trademarks already – whether the company ever brought their products to market or not. Before you pick out a clothing name or logo for your products you need to make sure the name and the logo itself is unique. You can conduct a trademark search using the Trademark Electronic Search System or have your attorney conduct a search for you.
Is Your Clothing Label Something You Can Trademark?
Not all clothing labels can be trademarked. To trademark your clothing line label, it must be distinctive and something that clearly distinguishes your products from others on the market. To trademark, put some extra time into designing a truly unique label and name.
Come Up with a Logo or Tagline
Clothing makers make their money from logos and taglines. These are part of a branding strategy, but very important if you are trying to break into an already competitive market.
Hire an Attorney to Fill Out Your Application
Trademark applications are simple, but do require a lot of research. While you can fill them out online, it is best to hire a trade secrets attorney with experience in trademarks. Also, hiring attorney opens up the door to additional services that will protect your clothing label – such as non-disclosure agreements for vendors and third-parties helping you launch your clothing line; non-competes to protect employees from opening up a similar clothing store; and other forms of intellectual property protection.
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