Page 273 - (ISC)² CISSP Certified Information Systems Security Professional Official Study Guide

people and organizations. As with copyright protection, trademarks do
not need to be officially registered to gain protection under the law. If

you use a trademark in the course of your public activities, you are
automatically protected under any relevant trademark law and can use
the ™ symbol to show that you intend to protect words or slogans as
trademarks. If you want official recognition of your trademark, you
can register it with the United States Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO). This process generally requires an attorney to perform a due
diligence comprehensive search for existing trademarks that might

preclude your registration. The entire registration process can take
more than a year from start to finish. Once you’ve received your
registration certificate from the USPTO, you can denote your mark as
a registered trademark with the ® symbol.

One major advantage of trademark registration is that you may
register a trademark that you intend to use but are not necessarily
already using. This type of application is called an intent to use

application and conveys trademark protection as of the date of filing
provided that you actually use the trademark in commerce within a
certain time period. If you opt not to register your trademark with the
PTO, your protection begins only when you first use the trademark.

The acceptance of a trademark application in the United States
depends on these two main requirements:

The trademark must not be confusingly similar to another
trademark—you should determine this during your attorney’s due
diligence search. There will be an open opposition period during
which other companies may dispute your trademark application.

The trademark should not be descriptive of the goods and services
that you will offer. For example, “Mike’s Software Company” would
not be a good trademark candidate because it describes the product

produced by the company. The USPTO may reject an application if
it considers the trademark descriptive.

In the United States, trademarks are granted for an initial period of 10
years and can be renewed for unlimited successive 10-year periods.

Patents