Looking for Help With Trademarks in Dallas, Texas?
For Business Owners and Entrepreneurs
We Turn Your Brands Into Assets.
Profit: Trademark Your Name, Slogan or Logo
Save: Eliminate Guessing, and Months Of Headaches
Guard: Protect Your Brands & Keep Competitors Away
Also: Patents, Copyrights, LLCs, & Incs.
TAKE THESE 3 STEPS TO START:
Book a Free Discovery Call
Call or email me to schedule an appointment. If you have an emergency, you’ll be moved to the front of the line.
Let’s Develop a Common-Sense Plan
When we speak, you can share your business and personal goals. You’ll leave with clarity and a plan for protecting your brands and turning them into assets.
Your Plan Goes Into Action!
After our meeting, you’ll know what to do, how long it will take, and how much it will cost, so you can launch your dream with confidence.
Inventions & Patents
Funding & Licensing
Brands & Trademarks
LLCs & Incorporation
Incorporating creates an entity you can use to do business through, and has advantages…
When I met Steve, I didn’t even know where to begin. Steve is able to make impossibly complex business issues understandable.
– Logan Smith Riise
Steve coordinated a successful defense when a major competitor tried to kill us in the cradle with their Trademark.
– Charles Gillis
Really, really good at patents! Beyond patents, Steve understands the business world.
– Lisa Lloyd
Steve has impeccable skills and a love of innovation and entrepreneurship.
– Brad Taylor
More About Trademarks: Your Brand Identity
Trademarks identify the source of origin of a good or a service with words and/or logos.
What You Will Learn Here: Branding Essentials, and How to Start Protecting Your Brands Today.
A trademark is a type of intellectual property. It can be a word, phrase, logo, design or combination of these. It identifies the source of goods or services. Confusingly, in addition to Federally Registered Trademarks, there are state trademarks, and common law trademarks.
Registering your business as a corporation or other entity with a secretary of state creates NO TRADEMARK RIGHTS.
TM / SM / ® . . . What’s the Difference?
TM (Trademark for goods) or SM (Service Mark for services) alert the public of claims to an unregistered mark. You do not need to have a trademark application filed or a registered trademark to use these symbols. The registration symbol ® may only be lawfully used when the mark is federally registered with the USPTO.
Oh, and yes, “Fanciful” and “Famous” Trademarks you’ve read on ketchup bottle labels have real definitions and legal meanings. We cover these in our seminar on branding.
Selecting a Branding Identity
Carefully selecting your brand identity prior to filing for registration saves time and money.
• Procedurally, it will be easier successfully register the mark.
• You’ll also save reprinting costs from having to change brand identity.
Trademarks are typically classified into four basic categories: generic, descriptive, suggestive, and arbitrary.
• Generic marks are not registrable — they are just too common.
• Descriptive marks are usually not registerable since they describe the good or service.
• Suggestive marks suggest the product/service and may be registerable under some conditions. Tree Top suggests fruit juice or birds, and Home Depot suggests home improvement.
• Arbitrary marks are the easiest to register since they have absolutely no meaning associated with the owner’s product or service, such as the word “Exxon.”
Trademark Searches
A trademark search determines if the mark you’re considering is eligible for use and/or federal registration. It also predicts the extent of your rights (for example, existing common law rights survive even if you receive a federal registration). For words or logos, a search should be conducted of federal records maintained by the USPTO. A State trademark and Common Law search should also be completed since the rights in trademarks vest initially with the first to use the trademark in commerce. Thompson is a trademark search company that searches all of these databases, and so we recommend using them to perform a trademark search.
Federal Trademark Registration: The Ultimate No-Brainer
Federal Registration tells the world that that the owner is entitled to use the mark throughout the United States for the goods and/or services described in the registration, subject to the prior-use rights of others. Federal Registration of a trademark can last indefinitely if properly renewed.
There are two types of trademark applications: “use-based” or “intent-to-use” (aka “intent based”). A use-based application is filed when you’re already using the mark in interstate commerce. An intent-based application is used if you want to reserve a mark for future use. However, due to limitations, and costs associated with intent-based applications, in all but the rarest cases we typically only suggest filing use-based registration applications.
Benefits of federal registration over common law and State Registration:
• establishes nationwide rights to exclusively use your name or logo with respect to a market, versus common law rights that are geographically limited to the area you actually market. provides access to injunctions
• allows for the impounding of infringing goods,
• legal presumptions that your mark is valid and enforceable (legal presumptions are valuable — just ask O.J.),
• the ability to recover attorneys fee.
Moreover, doesn’t it just make sense that if you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars–perhaps millions–on letterhead, literature, marketing, packaging, and product design that you should spend less than one percent of that on securing the right to exclusively use that name or logo?
It just so happens that I know how to register a trademark — that includes how to trademark a name, how to trademark a phrase, and how to trademark a logo — and can bring my experience to your project, so you can, if you’re entitled to it, get a registered trademark.
Your Next Step: To begin the process of protecting your brands, (1) call/email us and (2) quickly search Google, Bing, or Duck Duck Go for your Brand’s name.
Being a Business Owner and Entrepreneur In Dallas, Texas
Timing:
Today’s inventors and entrepreneurs can do more, faster than ever. Let’s do a quick comparison:
In 2004 a little business called Digg created software that enabled users to like webpages or articles. It took Digg six rounds of funding and $49 Million to create its product and grow. Today, you know them as Facebook’s “like” functions.
Today, Digg’s same functionality (heck, much better functionality) can be created over a long weekend. In fact, most of that time would be devoted to Design. If you have any doubt, just join in on the next Startup Weekend in the area!
Location Advantages: Economic Growth
Today the entire DFW (Dallas Fort-Worth) Metroplex is where the USA goes to do business and Addison, Texas is in the middle of it all: from the “5 Billion Dollar Mile” (now, actually having $10 Billion under Development) in Frisco that include the new Dallas Cowboys headquarters, to T-Mobile, Oracle, Conifer Health, Code Authority, Gearbox, Randstad Technologies, Kenexa, Fiserv, to HCL Communications and Level 3 Technologies (to name a few), to Irving’s famous names such as Exxon-Mobile, Lockheed, AT&T, and Flour, to Richardson’s Texas Instruments, and Fossil, to Plano’s JC Penny, Dr Pepper – Schweppes, and a host of other household names, today Dallas – Fort Worth and its notable suburbs are all business destinations (that are also a great places to raise a family), and Addison’s central location make doing business all over the Metroplex easy.
Speaking of DFW . . . unless you’ve been stranded on a remote island, you’ve probably aware that DFW is one of the fastest growing area of the United States both in terms of population, as well as economically. Indeed, it’s suburbs, including Frisco and McKinney, are consistently ranked in the three fastest-growing cities in the USA, and have been for nearly a decade. But Dallas isn’t just about economic growth, it’s also about family events from the State Fair of Texas to professional sports from the Mavericks, and Stars to the Cowbows, Thunder and FC Dallas.
Dallas’s University Community
The Southern Methodist University, is anchored in Dallas, and it’s (SMU) Guildhall located in Frisco offers an array of programs for software video game entrepreneurs ranging from weekend classes, to advanced-degreed programs in game design and development. Collin College’s has a Campus in every suburb, and an expansion campus of the University of Dallas (UD). The Guildhall’s annual pitch and presentation event is a must-see! The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), located in Richardson, offers an array of programs for entrepreneurs ranging from weekend classes, to degreed programs in entrepreneurship. UTD is also home to an tech-incubator, and frequently hosts special events for inventors and entrepreneurs, such as Startup Weekend, as well as presentations by Dallas Maverick’s owner and Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban.
Area Inventor and Entrepreneur Resources:
In and adjacent to Dallas inventors and entrepreneurs find that resources abound. Tech Wildcatters, the Dallas Entrepreneur Center, Genius Den, and DFW Excellerator are popular ‘heart-of-dallas’ startup institutions, while in Frisco The North Texas Enterprise Center has become a regional hub for innovative startups, and at Legacy Park you will find WeWork’s newest facility. Financial resources also abound, such as the North Texas Angel Network. Oh, and check out LaunchDFW.com!
Finding a Trademark Lawyer in Dallas, Texas
You’re probably here seeking a trademark attorney … well, I’m Steven Thrasher and I’ve been a practicing trademark attorney since 1996. And, in that time, I’ve helped hundreds of business owners and entrepreneurs (who I call “Game Changers”) transform their brands into assets that generate funding, help the business (and the owners) gain influence and attention, and earn revenue while escaping the competitive pressures of commodity businesses. Some of my clients have been on television shows like Ellen, Steve Harvey, C NN, Fox News, Fox Business, Shark Tank, and dozens of other programs. I would love to add you to our tribe of happy clients.
In additional to trademark applications, I solve problems related to copyrights and copyright law, web-domain registrations, and intellectual property portfolio development including patent registrations. Also, I coach businesses about their basic needs including incorporations (including LLCs), contractor agreements, non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), and where to go to get reputable and reliable website development, design work, branding, copywriting, financiang and insurance.
In service to the community, my firm (Thrasher Associates) has been active in the North Texas Technology Business Counsel, Tech Wildcatters, and regularly networks with the North Texas Angle Network and Baylor Angel Network (among other angel investor organizations).
I’m honored that you are considering doing business with my practice. Please take advantage of our free resources, and if you have a brand or an idea worth protecting, it’s worth your time to pick up the phone and give me a call.