It is not enough to just register your trademark. You must use it – or lose it.

To maintain trademark rights, your trademark must be continuously used in commerce. The mark must appear prominently and consistently on labels or packages of goods and on all marketing materials for services.

Trademarks are used to distinguish goods or services from those of their competitors. Consistent use helps customers know a product or service comes from a single company. Marks also help customers trust that the quality will be the same as the last time they made a purchase.

Infringement occurs when someone else uses your mark or a similar mark and there is a likelihood of confusion among consumers as to the source of the goods or services. Infringement is hard to prove if you are not using your trademark consistently enough for consumers to be familiar with it.

Here is an example of how inconsistent use can weaken your trademark rights.

Example Case: The Inhibitor vs. WD-40 Specialist Long-Term Corrosion Inhibitor

Jeffery Sorensen started a company in 1997 and sold rust preventive products under the trademark THE INHIBITOR. He also claimed common law trademark rights in a design mark associated with some of his products, a black and orange crosshair image.

In 2011, the WD-40 Company started to sell WD-40 Specialist Long-Term Corrosion Inhibitor, which also featured an orange crosshair image.

In the case of Sorensen v. WD-40 Company, No. 14-3067 (7th Cir. June 11, 2015), Sorensen sued WD-40 for infringing both THE INHIBITOR and crosshair trademarks.

The court stated, “Most damaging to Sorensen’s argument regarding this factor is his inconsistent use of the crosshair mark. Inconsistent use makes a symbol less helpful to consumers as a source indicator, and therefore a weaker mark. Sorensen’s crosshair has been used since 1997, but inconsistently—sometimes the crosshair has symbols in each quadrant, sometimes the quadrants are empty, and many times there is no crosshair at all, but rather a bull’s eye. This factor therefore squarely supports WD–40.”

Ultimately, Sorensen lost on all counts.

Best Practices to Protect Your Trademark

Your trademark is valuable intellectual property, and you can – and should – protect it. Here are several best practices your company should follow.

Use your trademark continuously and consistently.

This means you should always use the same capitalization, font, and colors. Also, use the same punctuation and spacing every time.

Never use the plural or possessive form of a mark.

Be consistent in your use of recognized trademark symbols.

There are three recognized trademark symbols: ® ™ ℠. You may only use the ® symbol after you have received a trademark registration from the USPTO. Before you receive a registration, you can use ™ or ℠ to let the public know you are claiming a common law right to the mark. The ™ symbol stands for trademark and should be used for marks that represent goods. The ℠ stands for service mark and should be used for marks that represent services.

Use of these recognized trademark symbols does not impact your trademark rights, but it does let competitors know that you own the trademark and will protect and enforce your rights.

 You should only use the symbols when the mark is used as an adjective to identify the source of specific goods or services.

This is an important distinction because if it is used as a noun or verb, it could become generic. Generic marks are not entitled to legal protection. Here are a few examples:

Incorrect: “use a Kleenex”, Xerox brand photocopier®, “rollerblade to the store”

Correct: Kleenex® brand tissues, Xerox® brand photocopier, “ride Rollerblade® brand inline skates to the store”

Be sure to use the same generic term to describe your product. For example, do not call it “Smith® brand baked goods” in one spot and “Smith® brand desserts” elsewhere.

Also, consistently use an attribution statement on marketing materials, ads, product packaging, website, manuals, etc.

Create branding guidelines.

Your company may have many employees who use your trademark on a regular basis. This can cause inconsistent use of anything from color to attribution.

You can help prevent this by creating brand guidelines that detail exactly what is required every time your trademark is used. Then share these guidelines with all employees – regardless of their position – and make them easily available as a reference.

Register your trademark.

For well-established, localized businesses, your use, state trademark registration, and common law rights may suffice. However, businesses with wider distribution in interstate commerce and especially international markets should take advantage of the, more valuable and stronger protection provided by trademark registration through the USPTO.