In United States trademark law

United States trademark law

Trademarks were traditionally protected in the United States only under State common law, growing out of the tort of unfair competition. As early as 1791, Thomas Jefferson proposed that the marks of sailcloth makers could be protected under the Commerce Clause, but it was not until 1870 that...

, the Principal Register is the primary register of trademark

Trademark

A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

s maintained by the United States Patent and Trademark Office

United States Patent and Trademark Office

The United States Patent and Trademark Office is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property identification.The USPTO is based in Alexandria, Virginia,...

. It is governed by Subchapter I of the Lanham Act

Lanham Act

The Lanham Act is a piece of legislation that contains the federal statutes of trademark law in the United States. The Act prohibits a number of activities, including trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and false advertising.-History:Named for Representative Fritz G...

.

Having a mark registered under the Principal Register confers certain benefits on the holder of the mark. Among them are:

• Nationwide constructive use and constructive notice, which cuts off rights of other users for similar marks
• The possibility of achieving incontestable status after five years (which cuts off certain defenses of potential infringement
  Trademark infringement
  Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attaching to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any licensees...
  
   defendants)
• The right to bring a federal cause of action
  Cause of action
  In the law, a cause of action is a set of facts sufficient to justify a right to sue to obtain money, property, or the enforcement of a right against another party. The term also refers to the legal theory upon which a plaintiff brings suit...
  
   for infringement without regard to diversity
  Diversity jurisdiction
  In the law of the United States, diversity jurisdiction is a form of subject-matter jurisdiction in civil procedure in which a United States district court has the power to hear a civil case where the persons that are parties are "diverse" in citizenship, which generally indicates that they are...
  
   or amount in controversy
  Amount in controversy
  Amount in controversy is a term used in United States civil procedure to denote the amount at stake in a lawsuit, in particular in connection with a requirement that persons seeking to bring a lawsuit in a particular court must be suing for a certain minimum amount before that court may hear the...
  
  
• The right to request U.S. Customs and Border Protection
  U.S. Customs and Border Protection
  U.S. Customs and Border Protection is a federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security charged with regulating and facilitating international trade, collecting import duties, and enforcing U.S. regulations, including trade, customs and immigration. CBP is the...
  
   officials to bar importation of goods bearing infringing trademarks
• Provisions for treble damages
  Treble damages
  Treble damages, in law, is a term that indicates that a statute permits a court to triple the amount of the actual/compensatory damages to be awarded to a prevailing plaintiff, generally in order to punish the losing party for willful conduct. Treble damages are a multiple of, and not an addition...
  
  , attorney fees, and various other remedies.

Trademarks must be inherently distinctive, or have acquired sufficient secondary meaning, to be registered on the Principal Register.

External links

• Explanation of the Principal Register, from QuizLaw
• Subchapter I of the Lanham Act from the Legal Information Institute
  Legal Information Institute
  The Legal Information Institute is a non-profit, public service of Cornell Law School that provides no-cost access to current American and international legal research sources online at . The organization is a pioneer in the delivery of legal information online. Founded in 1992 by Peter Martin and...