Trademark Monitoring Service
Trademark monitoring means making sure other people are not using your trademark or infringing upon it. This is a requirement of federal trademark registration, though it is important for state and non-registered trademarks as well.
Not sure where to start? We’ve got you. With Northwest's Trademark Monitoring Service, we'll continuously monitor your mark by scanning domain registries and state and federal databases, and we'll catalog any threats to your mark in a single easy-to-read monthly report.
Try Trademark Monitoring for free for the first 90 days when you sign up for Northwest's Trademark Service for $599. After your free trial ends, you can keep the monitoring going for just $14 a month.
Benefits of Trademark Monitoring
Trademark monitoring is actively and consistently searching for other businesses using your trademark, or a mark confusingly similar to yours. The benefits kick in as soon as you start. The more thorough you are, the more benefits you’ll see from monitoring your trademark.
Trademark monitoring benefits include:
- Maintaining strong trademark rights
When trademarks similar to yours enter the marketplace, your mark can lose power if those similar marks continue to exist. Monitoring helps you learn about these marks in their early days, which gives you more time to act. Plus, monitoring your trademark is a requirement of federal registration. - Protecting against infringement
You can only take action against trademark infringement if you know that it has occurred. Trademark monitoring keeps you in the loop. Remember, state registered trademarks and common law trademarks are not processed through the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), so similar marks could pop up without them being notified. It is up to you to watch out for these. - Proving brand activity
While the USPTO doesn’t monitor for infringement, they do expect trademark owners to do that work themselves. Neglecting to take action when infringement occurs, or to let trademarks that could harm yours be registered, may show that you’re not actively protecting your mark or brand. This can lead to lesser trademark rights or, eventually, abandonment of the mark.
Do I Need Trademark Monitoring?
Whether you want to monitor on your own or outsource to the pros, trademark monitoring is a requirement of federal trademark registration. Not monitoring your mark risks losing your right to the mark entirely.
To use our Trademark Monitoring Service, first you need a trademark for us to protect. You can sign up for our Trademark Service to secure your word, phrase, or design for $599. We’ll prepare your application, conduct a clearance check, submit your mark to the USPTO, and deal with any minor procedural office actions. If there’s a bigger issue, we can refer you to Law on Call, where professional trademark attorneys can help.
Our Monitoring Service comes free for 90 days when we register your trademark. After that, it’s $14/month.
How to Monitor Your Trademark
Manual trademark monitoring is a slow and cumbersome process, involving the regular searching of numerous websites and databases. When monitoring your trademark, you’ll likely want to search sites and databases such as:
- The USPTO Official Gazette
- The USPTO Trademark Search
- State business and trademark registries
- Domain registries
- Social media
Monitoring software does this work for you. It scrapes sites to find similar marks and sends you regular reports with the findings.
You can monitor your trademark by yourself or outsource to a professional.
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Northwest’s Trademark Monitoring Service
If you’d rather skip the daily task of monitoring your trademark, we can help. Monitoring Service is free for the first 90 days for all of our Trademark Service clients. Our Monitoring Service scans state and federal databases. If there is likelihood of confusion between your mark and a newer one, our trademark monitoring service helps you discover it.
Our service offers:
- Continuous, automatic searching
Our monitoring software is always scanning for trademarks, company names, and domains that could pose a threat to your trademark. - Easy-to-read reports
Instead of combing through piles of data or having to check in to the system every day, you’ll have access to a monthly report. Simple and straightforward, it will list out any threats that were cataloged for the whole month. - Centralized information
Like your other Northwest services, the Trademark Monitoring Service will keep all of its resources and reports in the client portal, making it easy to keep track of and search. - One low price
Our service is one of the most affordable professional monitoring services in the business. Compared to other services that go upwards of $500, our service is just $14 a month – and you get your first three months free!
How Our Trademark Monitoring Service Works
To locate threats to your trademark, our monitoring software continuously scrapes federal trademark databases, domain registries, and entity name directories. It searches for conflicting keywords, domain names, company names, and trademarks that could infringe upon your mark. As we built our software, we worked with trademark attorneys to pinpoint high-risk situations, such as marks with identical first words or marks in different languages that share meaning.
Once a month, we’ll release a report with all the threats we’ve found.
Other marks are determined as threats if they overlap in design, word, or meaning, and:
- Belong in the same industry, or
- Promote related goods/services
To sign up for our Trademark Monitoring Service, first hire us to register your trademark with the USPTO and add Trademark Monitoring at checkout. Our Trademark Service costs $599. Our Trademark Monitoring Service is free for the first 90 days and after that, just $14 a month.
Trademark Monitoring FAQs
If a threat to your trademark is discovered, a common course of action is to send a cease and desist letter. Before doing so, it’s wise to verify that your trademark is the one being harmed, not the other way around. Knowing whether your mark was first in-use is a good start.
Yes. Our partner law firm, Law on Call, is available to draft and send cease and desist letters on your behalf for just $99 per letter. No matter how many threats to your mark there are, we’re there to help.
It depends. If you leave a trademark threat unchecked, the end result will be based, in part, on the severity of the threat and how it evolves over time. Regardless, it’s the responsibility of trademark owners to keep their rights secure. In the event of a dispute, your argument can lose steam if you didn’t take action against a threat to your mark.
A registered trademark can last forever if certain requirements are met. Federal trademark renewal includes a filing between years 5 and 6 post-registration, a filing between years 9 and 10, and a filing every 10 years thereafter. Additional requirements of trademark longevity include the continuous buying/selling of the goods/services promoted by the mark, as well as the mark maintaining its “distinctive” quality.
Not monitoring your trademark leaves you in the dark regarding unauthorized use and infringement. Over time, this lack of knowledge can lead to a lack of action (i.e. not trying to stop infringement), which can lead to diminished trademark rights or a loss of rights entirely.
A trademark is considered abandoned if it hasn’t been used for at least three years and the trademark owner doesn’t intend to use the mark again. Failing to act in cases of infringement is one factor that can lead to abandonment, as it can show the mark hasn’t been properly maintained.
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*This is informational commentary, not advice. This information is intended strictly for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice or a substitute for legal counsel. This information is not intended to create, nor does your receipt, viewing, or use of it constitute, an attorney-client relationship. More information is available in our Terms of Service.
