Who Should Own Your Trademark? You Or Your Business?

Should your business or you, personally, own your trademark? I'm going to answer this question as easily as possible but hang with me…

First off, if you have a trademark or you're seeking trademark protection with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), you are likely or should be transacting in commerce. That means you're selling a good or a service. I know I say this a lot but this is important. This means if you're collecting revenue or you plan to collect revenue you should have a business. Your business should likely be an LLC or maybe a corporation depending on how you are set up.

Trademarks are the brand behind that business. They are what people see when they transact with you. So, the first thing is you should have is a business. The second thing is that brand should be owned by that business so there…I answered your question!

There is a nuance but, generally speaking, trademarks are supposed to be owned by businesses because a trademark has to be used in commerce with a good or service. We're expecting revenue to flow into a collective (a business entity) and that business entity should also own the brand that's marketing out there for the money.

So, who should own your trademark? Typically, it's your business! This also comes in handy to protect you! If there is a suit on your trademark, you stole it, there was infringement, there's a complaint, or whatever there may be, even if it's not true, that lawsuit can go against your business. As the owner of the trademark and not you personally, this is another great thing about having your business own your brand.

Now, people sometimes want to own it personally and there's a few exceptions. Sometimes I work with people who get into partnerships where one person has developed the brand. They feel very personally very connected. Maybe it was a hand-drawn logo and it's really important to them that they own it. That person can own that personally and we can file the trademark application that way—granting them ownership once it's registered. What they can do is license it back to their business so that still helps to shift that liability away from them personally but gives them that personal ownership.

There's a few other strategies we can use as well. It's really important that you speak with a trademark attorney to determine if should you own this personally or should your brand. By large, your brand should equate your business and they should be owned together.

If you have questions on this you can like subscribe you can drop them below or reach out to us today if you have questions about the ownership of your trademark.