If you're bringing a new product to market, two questions almost always come up early on in the process:
Should I trademark my name?
Can I patent this?
On a recent episode of the Pitch to Product Podcast, 52Launch's Jack Dalton sat down with intellectual patent lawyer Scott Seeley, founder of Eastgate IP, to walk through the fundamentals every founder and inventor should understand.
The superscript ™ simply signals to the marketplace that you're using a word, phrase, or logo as a trademark, and you can start using it the moment you begin selling under that name. It gives you common law rights, which are real but limited: they're regional, harder to enforce, and don't let you bring a lawsuit on their own.
The circled ® can only be used once the USPTO has issued a federal trademark registration. Federal registration gives you exclusive, nationwide ownership of that name for your specific goods and services, including access to the court system and a much stronger legal position if someone else tries to use a similar name.
A well-known real-world example: some companies use both symbols on the same product line. A newer product name marked with ™ while an established, already-registered name carries the ®, often because the newer mark hasn't cleared registration yet.
No. A name and a logo are legally two separate trademarks (a standard character mark for the name, a design mark for the logo), even though you can file both applications at the same time.
For businesses with limited budgets, the higher-value investment is usually the standard character mark; protecting the name itself, regardless of font, color, or styling. A design mark only protects that one specific stylized version, which is a much narrower scope of protection. Large companies often protect logos, slogans, and even colors, but smaller startups typically get the most protection per dollar by prioritizing the name first.
The USPTO evaluates names along what's called the spectrum of distinctiveness:
Names that are descriptive tend to sell well because customers instantly understand what the product does, but they're the hardest to legally protect. Highly distinctive or invented names are the easiest to register but require more effort to build recognition from scratch.
If a name is descriptive, it can sometimes still be registered if you can show consumers have come to associate that term specifically with your brand and not just the underlying product category. Evidence that supports this includes:
This is a fact-specific determination, and outcomes vary case by case, but strong review volume and public visibility can meaningfully help a difficult application succeed.
Beyond legal protection, a federal trademark is generally required to enroll in Amazon's Brand Registry, which unlocks enhanced listing features (like brand-specific video and A+ content) and makes it significantly easier to get counterfeit or infringing listings removed. Amazon is generally motivated to side with the registered trademark holder to avoid getting pulled into legal disputes over IP infringement.
More broadly, trademark registration prevents two costly outcomes:
If the underlying function already exists (like storing liquid in a bottle, or brewing a cup of coffee), a design patent can still protect the distinctive shape or visual configuration, which is especially useful for protecting products (and compatible accessories) within a branded ecosystem.
There's also a provisional application, which isn't a patent itself but a placeholder that establishes a priority filing date for up to one year while you decide whether to move forward with a full utility application.
The core test the USPTO applies is novelty and non-obviousness, meaning the invention can't already exist in the literature, and it can't be a purely predictable combination of already-known elements.
A common mistake inventors make is trying to patent an entire product rather than the specific problem their team actually had to solve to bring it to life. With millions of patents already on record, broad concepts are usually already covered. Instead, the higher-value strategy is identifying the specific technical problems solved during development (ex. a manufacturing shortcut, a way to make two components work together, a cost-saving redesign) and filing on those solutions specifically.
Yes, this is standard practice, not the exception. A single product can be protected through multiple applications covering:
Companies frequently file one comprehensive application and then continue to expand protection over time through continuation applications, allowing them to build a broader patent portfolio from a single original disclosure.
Utility patents:
Design patents:
Patent rights, once granted, generally extend back to the original filing date, so the wait doesn't erase the value of filing early.
This is one of the most important and most overlooked deadlines in patent law. Public disclosure and offers for sale can trigger what's known as a statutory bar, potentially destroying your ability to patent the invention later.
Key points inventors need to know:
If you've shown your product at a trade show, discussed licensing, offered it for sale, or shared it publicly at any point, talk to a patent attorney immediately to find out what deadlines may already be running.
Patents function as a trade: in exchange for publicly teaching the world how to make and use your invention, the government grants a time-limited exclusive right to make and sell it. But that exclusivity is only as strong as the underlying strategy; a single patent covering only one narrow claim can be relatively easy for a competitor to challenge or design around.
A stronger approach typically involves:
Ready to turn your product idea into a reality and get it to market? Contact us today at 52Launch to get started.