Trademarks
Brief Description of the "Supplemental Register"

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has two registers for trademark applications. The "principal" and the "supplemental".
  • The Principal Register It is the normal trademark registration.

  • The Supplemental Register is used for trademarks that don't qualify for the Principal Register because the mark is:

    • merely descriptive of the goods or services being sold
    • a surname, or
    • a geographicalterm
The Supplemental Register provides most, but not all, of the protection afforded to marks on the Principal Register (click to read more).
  • The protection under the Supplemental Register lasts ONLY FOR FIVE YEARS  -  in order to continue protection AFTER the 5-year period a new application for the "Principal Register" would have to be filed.

    • The new application must include evidence that the trademark had taken on a "secondary meaning" (aka "acquired distinctiveness") meaning that consumers have started associating the trademark specifically with the applicant's goods or services)

    • The Good News:  when filing that new application there will be a presumption that your mark has developed a secondary meaing ("acquired distinctiveness") so long you show that the mark has actually been used during the past 5 years