Are there pitfalls in the registration process?
• The Examiner at the U.S. Trademark Office may force your company to spend additional time and legal fees in overcoming the Examiner’s objections. • An undetected, conflicting, unregistered user might turn out to have filed an intent-to-use registration application a short time before your intent-to-use application, and force you to abandon your chosen mark when the conflict surfaces. • An undetected, conflicting, unregistered user whose use predates your filing could force you to abandon your chosen mark when the conflict surfaces as a result of your filing. • You might choose a mark that is overly descriptive, or deceptively misdescriptive, or primarily a geographic location or a surname, and therefore not registrable or protectible. 7. What might happen if I try to register a mark that is descriptive? The U.S. Trademark Office may reject your application to register a descriptive mark on its Principal Register, and anyone else with a confusingly similar mark for a competing product
