What is the Difference Between a Legal Name, Trade Name, and a Trademark?

First, there is an important distinction between a legal name, trade name, and a trademark or service mark.  A legal name is the name of a person or entity that owns a business.  A legal name must be registered with a state government and includes a legal ending, such as an LLC or LLP, after the title.  This is used in communicating with the government.

A trade name is generally considered the name a business uses for advertising and sales purposes.  A trade name is sometimes referred to as a “fictitious” or “doing business as (DBA)” title.  For example, “McDonald’s” may be the trade name, but the legal name is “McDonald’s Corporation.”

A trademark is a brand name. A trademark or service mark includes any word, name, symbol, device, or any combination, used or intended to be used to identify and distinguish the goods/services of one seller or provider from those of others, and to indicate the source of the goods/services.  For example, the Golden Arches are a trademark of McDonald’s or the McDonald’s Corporation.

An important reason to distinguish between trade names and trademarks is that if a business starts to use its trade name to identify products and services, it could be perceived that the trade name is now functioning as a trademark, which could potentially infringe on existing trademarks.

It is not mandatory to register a trademark; however, federal registration has many advantages:

•Public notice of your claim of ownership of the trademark
•A legal presumption of your ownership of the trademark and your exclusive right to use the mark nationwide on or in connection with the goods/services listed in the registration
•The ability to bring an action concerning the trademark in federal court
•The use of the U.S. registration as a basis to obtain registration in foreign countries
•The ability to record the U.S. registration with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Service to prevent importation of infringing foreign goods
•The right to use the federal registration symbol ®
•Listing in the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s online databases to deter potential infringers

In addition, the trademark may be used in a variety of ways in the online environment to the benefit of the trademark owner. A trademark protects your company brand or product names from being used by another company in a similar line of business.

In the online world, your trademark can appear as your Twitter handle, your Facebook URL, as well as product-specific Facebook pages.   Also, if you prove that a third party registered a domain name in “bad faith” in relation to your trademark, the federal registration provides a presumption of your entitlement to take the third party’s domain name.  Therefore, the registered trademark may facilitate ensuring that you are the exclusive user of your brand name on websites, URLs, and advertisements.

 

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