I work at a department store, and one of my projects is to go through all of our brands and see if the brand has either an ®, ™, or nothing.
So far I’ve been Google searching, but that is long and annoying, I was referred to the USPTM to do a generalized search, and that works, but it doesn’t tell me (or I don’t notice) if it’s a fully registered trademark ® or if it’s just a trademark ™.
Does anyone know of a quick and easy way to find this out?
If it shows on the USPTO’s TESS system as a live mark, it’s registered and gets the ®.
I hate to ask, but why would the department store be concerned about this? Does your boss think it’s necessary for the store’s advertising to observe the trademark owner’s preferences?
There’s no particular legal reason to mark trademarks in ads, though some companies do it in their ads. If you’re talking about the actual product and use the trademark properly, a company has no reason to considering it infringement, and any attempt would just mean their product wasn’lt going to be advertised. If their IP lawyer recommend pursuing the issue, it’s time to get a new lawyer.