Introduction
I have the world’s most popular name, but I’ve never been able to trademark it. My mother named me after herself, not thinking that this would prevent either of us from using our names as trademarks or service marks (which are words or symbols that identify your goods or services as being from a particular source). But how can you claim ownership of a name?
This essay looks at different alternatives to trademark registration that you may utilise to prevent your name from being used by others.
Trademark Or Service Mark
The USPTO does not permit the registration of a person’s name as a trademark or service mark. To protect your name, you must utilise it in conjunction with another product or business that you have produced. This might include: a service or a product
If you are the company’s founder and an executive, you can use your name as part of the business and acquire trademark protection for it.
If you went to law school, consider developing a CLE course that leverages your name and provides CLE credit.
As a practising (or prospective) attorney, you may develop a CLE course that includes your name and provides CLE credit. If you are unable to attend law school or pass the bar test, this is another way to make money.
You can also teach law as an adjunct professor in a US university or college. To become a professor, you do not need to have completed law school or passed the bar exam, but you will need to go through training programmes given by each university and state where you intend to teach.
Consider conducting seminars or workshops on your knowledge if you are well-known as an expert in your area. The experience is an excellent method to promote your brand and network. Furthermore, if you are good enough at teaching, you may be able to utilise it to be hired by someone else. It’s also useful for attracting clients—if people see what sort of educator you are, they might want to work with you!
You may even become a carpenter and mark your text books and instructional guides with your name.
You might even sell your services as a teacher or other professional whose job requires him to utilise a trademarked name.
However, if you are a firm employee and use your name in conjunction with their product or service, you will be unable to secure trademark protection.
If you want to become a practising attorney, the best method to accomplish it is to attend law school. There are alternative choices if you are unable to attend law school or pass the bar test. If you don’t enjoy teaching, there are alternative methods to promote your brand. One method is to give public speeches. Contact local groups that would be interested in hearing from an expert on a specific issue and offer to speak for free in exchange for helping to publicise the event. You should also think about producing webinars or podcasts about your area of expertise—this allows individuals who can’t afford to pay you in person to get a taste of what you have to offer…
To keep things simple, start your own YouTube channel and blog about what you know best. Your name can be used as a brand, trademark, or service mark. If you want to elaborate on that notion, you can use it as a trade dress or collective mark. Consider utilising your name as a certification mark or having an attorney create laws for any other categories that may apply to your case if you want even more protection over the use of your name.
You might even attempt to trademark your name in a broader sense. For example, if you’re a well-known chef with a restaurant of the same name, you may use your trademark to give cooking lessons or even sell branded goods like aprons and pots and pans.
There are no simple ways to trademark a name, but there are some inventive methods.
A single person’s name can be registered as part of a logo, business name, or slogan. If the name is part of a domain name, it may also be considered for trademarking. However, if your aim is to prevent people from replicating your personal identify or image, you’ll need to analyse how these alternatives effect that goal.
For example, you may want to ensure that no one else may use your last name in their company’ domain name since they may try to mislead people into believing they are linked with you or are using your reputation. In this scenario, it would be preferable if no one else had access to combining those phrases together online; at the very least, you’d know where everyone sits on this subject when searching up information about oneself online!
If the name is for a product or service that you are offering, you should consider obtaining trademark protection. If someone else begins using your company name and logo without your permission, you may lose sales and consumers as a result of their activities.
Conclusion
The easiest approach to register a brand name is to put it to good use. Do something if you want to be renowned for it! The more people who are aware of you and your beliefs, the better off everyone will be. The more identifiable your brand gets as a result of being used as an identifier elsewhere, such as on social media platforms, the simpler it will be for people to recognise when they see it elsewhere and know who is affiliated with this product or service.
