Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Finding A Trademark For A Home Business Opportunity Online

By Myles Krueger

One of the most significant steps you can take with a home business opportunity online is to get a trademark approved by the US government that will stand the test of time. One of the best things you can do is protect any names, brands, or ideas that you put down on paper.

In order for you to trademark something you will have to do so with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. They provide a form online called the Trademark Electronic Application System or the TEAS that you can fill out mostly online in order to get a trademark.

Usually this is going to cost around $325 to file the form online, but it will vary based on what you have to accomplish for your trademark. If this is going to be the first time you create intellectual property or a trademark then I suggest that you don't do it yourself and get help. There is a 24 hour customer service number for the USTPO that they provide to help you with the form.

They can only do so much for you because they are not trained to help with business philosophy or branding so I suggest that you find yourself a good lawyer that will actually help you through this whole process to find a branded name that you can trademark that will benefit you and your company. They are great to bounce ideas off of so you can get a general direction on how to approach this process.

This can be overwhelming and the approval process can be tedious because it can take several months for them to approve or not approve this trademark. They can be denied if they feel that your name is too general or if you are infringing upon another companies trademark.

If you are an American citizen you can turn in an application, but the same can be said for a non citizen also. You will probably have to get an EIN number in order to turn one in, but there are no worries. If you are out of the country you can always have a domestic representative like a lawyer help you by filling out the form for you.

Before you have completed the process make sure that you have a name that is very arbitrary because you don't want to have to go through this process again down the road because you have changed products or business philosophies. Make it easy on yourself initially so you don't put yourself into a corner.

Now that you have finished this process you have true intellectual property that you can say is yours. A lot of people can't say that in this world and now you can really mold your business and ideas into something special with a solid foundation.

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