How To Trademark A Clothing Brand?

In the fashion industry, a unique clothing brand is essential for establishing a strong market presence and building customer loyalty. Trademarking your clothing brand is a crucial step to protect your brand identity and ensure that it remains exclusively yours.

Here’s to learning how to trademark a clothing brand.

Why Trademark Your Clothing Brand?

Trademarking your clothing brand grants you the exclusive right to use your brand name, logo, or slogan in connection with your products. This legal protection helps prevent others from using a similar name or design that could cause confusion among your customers. For instance, if you create a unique brand like “Urban Elegance,” trademarking it ensures that no other clothing company can legally use a similar name, safeguarding your brand identity.

By trademarking your clothing brand, you ensure that you have exclusive rights to use it in commerce. This exclusivity is vital in a competitive market where brand differentiation is key. For example, the brand “Nike” is trademarked, ensuring that no other company can use a similar name, which helps maintain a strong and unique brand identity.

A registered trademark adds significant value to your brand. It is a tangible asset that enhances your overall business worth. This can be particularly important if you plan to license your brand, sell your business, or seek investment. A trademarked clothing brand adds credibility and can attract potential investors or partners.

Trademarking your clothing brand acts as a deterrent to others who might consider using a similar name or logo. When other businesses see that your brand is trademarked, they are less likely to use a similar brand, knowing it could lead to legal repercussions. This helps protect your brand from infringement and maintains its uniqueness.

Registering a trademark for your clothing brand demonstrates professionalism and a serious commitment to your brand. It shows that you are dedicated to protecting your business name, which can enhance your reputation and build trust with your customers, partners, and investors.

Rebranding can be a costly and time-consuming process. By trademarking your clothing brand early on, you can avoid the potential expenses associated with rebranding if another business claims your brand name or a similar one. This foresight can save you significant time and money in the long run.

If you plan to expand your clothing line, having a trademark provides legal protection in other areas as well. Whether you’re launching new product lines, entering new markets, or creating a franchise, a trademark ensures your brand is protected across various platforms and products.

Difference Between Getting a Patent and Trademarking a Clothing Brand

Understanding the difference between getting a patent and trademarking a clothing brand is crucial for protecting your intellectual property effectively. While both patents and trademarks offer legal protections, they serve different purposes and cover different aspects of your business.

Trademarks for a Clothing Brand

Trademarks primarily protect brand identity elements such as names, logos, slogans, and other symbols that distinguish your clothing brand from others in the marketplace. For instance, trademarking can secure the name of your clothing line (e.g., “Nike”), visual symbols like the Nike “Swoosh,” catchphrases or taglines used in marketing (e.g., “Just Do It”), and unique design elements that identify your brand (e.g., Louboutin’s red soles). The primary benefit of a trademark is that it grants you exclusive rights to use these elements in commerce, enabling you to take legal action against unauthorized use or infringement. This helps build and maintain brand identity and customer loyalty. Trademarks can potentially last indefinitely, as long as they are actively used in commerce and renewed periodically. The process involves filing an application with the relevant trademark office (such as the USPTO in the United States), undergoing examination for conflicts with existing trademarks and compliance with legal requirements, and renewing the trademark periodically.

Patents for a Clothing Brand

On the other hand, patents are designed to protect new inventions, processes, and designs that offer novel and non-obvious solutions or functionalities. In the context of clothing, utility patents can cover new and useful processes, machines, or compositions of matter, such as innovative fabrics, construction methods, or functional features (e.g., a new type of waterproof fabric or a unique fastening system). Design patents protect new, original, and ornamental designs for articles of manufacture, which in clothing can include unique patterns or specific cuts and shapes of garments (e.g., a distinctive pattern for a dress). The primary benefit of a patent is that it grants you exclusive rights to make, use, sell, and distribute the patented invention or design, potentially generating revenue through licensing. Patents also provide a significant market advantage by preventing competitors from copying or using your innovations. However, patents have a limited duration—typically 20 years for utility patents and 15 years for design patents (in the U.S.). The process of obtaining a patent is more complex and lengthy, requiring detailed applications, rigorous examination to ensure novelty and non-obviousness, and periodic maintenance fees to keep the patent in force.

How to Trademark a Clothing Brand?

Trademarking a clothing brand involves several steps. Each step is crucial to ensure that your application is successful and that your brand is adequately protected.

Step 1: Decide How to File

Before starting the trademarking process, decide how you want to file your application. You have three main options:

Direct Filing with USPTO
- File directly with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This option is the most cost-effective but requires you to handle all aspects of the application yourself.
Online Legal Services
- Use online legal services that specialize in trademark registrations. These websites can simplify the process and ensure that your application is correctly filed.
Hiring a Trademark Attorney
- Hire a trademark attorney to handle the process for you. This option is the most expensive but provides expert guidance and increases the likelihood of a successful application.

Step 2: Review the Current Fee Schedule

The USPTO updates its fee schedule periodically. Before submitting your application, review the current fees to understand the costs involved. Being aware of the fees upfront helps you budget for the trademarking process and avoid surprises.

Step 3: Conduct a Thorough Search

Conduct a search in the USPTO’s Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) to ensure that no similar trademarks are already registered. This step is crucial to avoid potential legal issues and application rejection.

Tips for a Comprehensive Search:

Search Variations: Look for different variations of your brand name, logo, or slogan, including common misspellings and similar sounding names.
Check Related Classes: Ensure that the term is not already used in related classes of goods or services.
Review Abandoned Trademarks: Understand why previous attempts to trademark the term were abandoned, as this can provide valuable insights.

Step 4: Develop a Strong Argument for Distinctiveness

To convince the USPTO that your clothing brand is eligible for trademark protection, you need to provide substantial evidence of its distinctiveness and use in commerce. This may include:

Brand Design: Create a unique and detailed design for your brand’s logo and other elements.

Usage Evidence: Demonstrate how the brand is used in your products or services, such as in marketing materials, merchandise, or media.

Consumer Recognition: Provide surveys, customer testimonials, and other evidence showing that consumers associate the brand with your products.

Step 5: File Your Trademark Application

Once you have developed a strong argument for the brand’s distinctiveness and use in commerce, you can file your trademark application through the USPTO’s Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS).

Choose the Appropriate Form: Depending on your circumstances, choose between TEAS Plus, TEAS RF, or TEAS Regular.

Provide Detailed Information: Include all necessary information in your application, such as the brand name, logo, slogan, the goods or services it will be used with, and the evidence supporting its distinctiveness and use in commerce.

Submit Specimens: Provide specimens showing how the brand is used in commerce. This could include images of the brand on products, marketing materials, or media.

Step 6: Monitor and Respond to Office Actions

After filing your application, the USPTO will review it and may issue an office action if there are any issues or objections. You will need to respond to these office actions promptly and effectively.

Common Objections: Be prepared to address common objections such as descriptiveness, likelihood of confusion, or lack of distinctiveness.

Legal Assistance: Consider hiring a trademark attorney to help you navigate the office action process and strengthen your case.

Costs of Trademarking a Clothing Brand

The cost to trademark a clothing brand varies depending on the filing option you choose. Here are the three basic options provided by the USPTO:

Direct Filing Fees

When you file directly with the USPTO’s TEAS, you can choose from three basic options:

TEAS Plus
- Basic Filing Fee: $250 per class of goods or services.
- Additional Class Fee: $125 for each additional class.
- Email Communications: Required for further communications.
TEAS Reduced Fee (TEAS RF)
- Basic Filing Fee: $275 per class of goods or services.
- Additional Class Fee: $125 for each additional class (payable later).
- Email Communications: Required for further communications.
TEAS Regular
- Basic Filing Fee: $350 per class of goods or services.
- Additional Class Fee: Fees apply for adding classes of goods and services.

Additional Costs

Trademark Attorney: Hiring a trademark attorney can cost anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on the complexity of your case.
Marketing and Surveys: Gathering evidence for the brand’s distinctiveness may involve costs related to marketing materials, consumer surveys, and other forms of proof.

Contact Us:

If you have any questions or need assistance with trademarking your clothing brand, our team of experts is here to help. Contact us today to learn more about how we can make trademarking easier for you.

Sissie Hsiao

Sissie Hsiao is the Vice President of Content Marketing and an innovator at heart. With a deep expertise in law, she specializes in the cutting-edge application of trademark and copyright. Sissie's unique blend of legal knowledge and marketing acumen drives her passion for developing forward-thinking content strategies that protect and promote creative works.