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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mistwell" data-source="post: 3994745" data-attributes="member: 2525">Those are examples of folks who do not care enough to bother asking an attorney about it.  Which is why I said, if you care enough to treat the issue as a serious one for a particular product or service, then you should register it.  If you don't care much, then don't worry about it and just put a TM next to it.  But don't expect it to be well protected.  For under $500 you can get a trademark through a company like LegalZoom, so you would really have to care very little to decide against it.You would be surprised I think to realize just how many "major retailers" and manufacturers do not in fact employ an IP lawyer for most things.  As a  lawyer who has done work for some of those companies, and had to clean up their messes sometimes, I assure you that your assumption that if they are "major" they must be doing the right thing does not often hold true.Just another example of a situation where it doesn't matter.  Like I said when I responded to you, if you care enough about it to take it seriously, then you should register it.  That is a situation where they don't care.  But those companies won't be suing anyone over trademark infringement for those unregistered names either.And you've been an attorney in that field for how long?It is the advice of this attorney, who has worked on IP matters as an attorney in Los Angeles for about 13 years, that if you care about a product or service name enough to bring the issue up in a serious way, and have a concern that someone could infringe your trademark such that you might want to sue over it some day, you should register the mark.It is also the experience of this attorney that if you do not register the mark, you should not expect to get damages beyond actual damages, and you should expect to have to prove more to make your case, and you should expect that some attorneys you will go to for representation will reject representation outright because you failed to register it.You are free, of course, to choose to do otherwise.</blockquote>

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