Trademark Lawyers | Trademark Registration Attorney

VLF has a robust and experienced intellectual law group in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Southern California. In working with companies to establish brand identity and protection, VLF’s trademark lawyers help businesses to protect intellectual property with federal (and state) trademark registration. In cases where claims are made of an improper use of a trademark, VLF undertakes the aggressive defense or prosecution of infringement cases, both before the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the United States Federal District Courts.

Our trademark attorneys are located in the hub of cutting edge businesses. Whether in the energy, medical, and services sectors in Houston, financial businesses and start-ups in Dallas, or the biotech, construction, and engineering sectors of San Antonio, VLF works closely with our clients to protect their creative brand and marks, which includes:

  • Trademark Counseling and Brand Development Strategies
  • Trademark Registration and Protection in Business, Entertainment, E-media, Technology, and the Internet
  • Trademark Litigation

How Trademarks Add Value to Your Business

Trademarks and service marks are issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or by the State of Texas, and are used to identify logos or product and service designations that allow consumers to associate goods and services with a business. This association promotes the brand recognition of a business, which will ultimately become the business’s greatest investment. A registered trademark safeguards a mark against those who would use the same or similar mark to confuse the registered trademark with their own infringing mark.

VLF’s trademark attorneys work with our business clients throughout the major business hubs in Texas and California, focused on the Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and Los Angeles markets, to protect our clients’ product or service marks.

Protecting & Enforcing Trademarks

VLF’s trademark attorneys aggressively take on counterfeiters, gray market sellers, and those that dilute the trademarks of our clients. The prevalence of the internet, as a growing source of commerce, has made trademark theft, duplication, and dilution fairly common. Your first priority where your trademark is concerned is protecting your trademark. Whether your trademark is for an established company, or you are in the initial phases of building a brand for your primary product or service, VLF’s trademark lawyers can help you protect your brand and business investment.

The first step to protecting the brand is to reserve the brand for the business. VLF’s trademark attorneys handle everything, from the initial filing to the prosecution and maintenance of the trademark.

Subsequently, VLF works with clients to develop trademark protection strategies, manage portfolios, negotiate trademark licenses, and handle opposition and cancellation proceedings. With offices in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and Los Angeles, our trademark lawyers are able to successfully guide our business clients through the complex process of creating and registering a trademark or service mark for their business.

Federal Trademark Registration

While the “TM” logo advises all persons and businesses that your business products or services are well known, have gained a favorable reputation, and conveys useful consumer information about that product’s or service’s quality, a federally registered trademark vastly improves national recognition of the business that owns the mark.  Once a business has registered its trademark, the business is then permitted to use the registered trademark symbol (®) to affiliate a good or service with the company name, also known as branding, and conveys a level of sophistication and professionalism. Aggressively growing businesses and entrepreneurial ventures gain traction in their fields and a lasting place in the market by associating their brand with a protected trademark.

Trademark Registration

Our trademark attorney team in Houston works with businesses, offering highly complex and technologically innovative products and services. The Trademark Attorneys of Vethan Law Firm, P.C., assist clients to develop and protect the value of their trademarks and service marks by preparing, filing, prosecuting, and maintaining trademark applications and registrations, working with clients to develop trademark protection strategies and to manage portfolios, negotiating trademark licenses, and handling opposition and cancellation proceedings. Our Houston and Dallas trademark lawyer team has successfully guided countless clients through the complex process of creating and registering a trademark for their business. The expertise and attention to detail of a Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin or Los Angeles trademark attorney will be valuable assets in helping your business obtain a trademark.

Trade Dress Infringement for Unregistered Trademarks

The look and feel of a business’ product or service is also subject to protection under the federal trademark law, even if it is not a registered mark. A trade dress includes the total overall appearance of the business, and may even include features such as size, shape, color, or even a sales technique. The term “trade dress” refers to the total image of a product: its design and features, along with the elements that serve to identify the product to consumers. In a restaurant, for example, trade dress may include an identifying sign, the floor plan, décor, the equipment to serve the food, and anything else that conveys the image of the restaurant. The trade dress of a business—that is, the total image and appearance of a business—may be used to sue trademark infringers. As with a registered trademark, a distinctive identifying mark or image of a business may be protected if it either (1) is inherently distinctive (when a source of a product is distinguished from other products), or (2) has acquired distinctiveness through secondary meaning—that is, a unique association with a specific source (the purchasing public associates the product with a particular source or seller). A copier of the trade dress may be seen as falsely claiming that its products are originating from the business that has spent the effort, monetary resources, and time to develop its trade dress.

I wanted to personally thank you and your staff again for doing such a great job. VLF has been simply amazing. Their professionalism, negotiating skills, and knowledge of the law have simply been a lifesaver for my business. The overall settlement was so much more than we ever expected and hoped for. Simply put, they saved my company. I cannot say enough about your firm and its staff. Thanks to you, my company will continue to grow and be profitable. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Scott Stephens President, Custom Shop Guitars of Texas, LLC Vethan Law Firm, P.C. April 10, 2016

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