What is a Trademark? What is the difference in Federal Trademark and a State Trademark protection?

A trademark can be any word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination of these things that identifies your goods or services. A trademark identifies you and/or your products source and distinguishes your creativeness from other brands.

Did you know once you use your brand name you have a Trademark?! Awesome right? Yes, it is however without federal trademark recognition your protection is narrow. Acquiring a federal trademark will protect what you worked so hard to build nationwide! Yes baby, nationwide!!

Why should I care about a federal trademark? Well let’s say you make the best candles in your home or shop in North Carolina and brand them ABCYZ and they explode on social media, tiktok, Facebook, instagram! AYYY LETS GO! … well wait a minute. now notice another company popping up using your same candle names and ingredients in California stating they are ABCYZ, no they aren’t!! But they aren’t in your state so North Carolina doesn’t offer you protection to California to shut this down. Here’s where federal trademark protection can help your brand hopefully (we will have to go into dates of first use, to be covered in a blog post coming soon).