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Basics of filing in the United States Dec 2018

Basics of filing in the United States
All trademarks in the United States must be filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). There are two ways the application can be filed. Firstly, it can be done over the internet by using the Trademark Electronic Application System. The second option is a paper application.
For electronic filing there are three filing options. They are: 1) TEAS Plus (which offers the lowest filing fee per class) 2) TEAS Reduced Fee (which offers a reduced filing fee per class of goods and services) 3) TEAS Regular (which offers the highest filing fee for goods and services). For the paper application, printed forms can be requested by the USPTO.
Electronic filing has many advantages over paper filing. For example, online help is available as you fill in each section of the form; the online system checks information and makesure all necessary information is present; an immediate reply is received which provides the application serial number and summary of the filing submission; filing fees online are a lot lower than paper filing.
All applications require the following information:
Owner of the mark (applicant) Name and address for correspondence Depiction of the mark (the drawing) Goods/services Application filing fee Basis of filing Specimen for use based applications (sample of how you use your mark in commerce) Signature
When filing a Trademark application, the basis of filing must be specified. In the United States most applicants base their trademark either “use in commerce” or “intent to use.” The mark is filed as “use in commerce” when the goods and services have been used in commerce to exchange goods and services. In contrast, “intent to use” is when the mark has not been used yet but it is intended to be used in the future. We will demonstrate more about the filing basis in coming articles.