Your business is growing and the quality of your products or services has already given your venture an edge over the competition. However, beyond continuing to do what you've been doing, that is, successfully growing your business, how do you maintain and bolster the integrity of your brand? More importantly, how do you increase brand awareness while solidifying your brand's place in any given market?

In order for a trademark to register in the USA it must either be in use inside the territory of the United States, or registered abroad. For this reason, whenever one files an application with the USPTO, a “filing basis” must be specified, indicating on which basis the applicant registers the trademark in the USA.

Although claiming priority for a trademark application is possible in most countries in the world, it might be one of the least wisely-used tools available to trademark applicants. While some of the big-name corporations’ in-house IP departments have made an art out of the use of the priority claim for their trademark strategies, in general, the process remains poorly understood. 

As a general rule, registered trademarks will only be recognized in the country where they are registered. However, many countries have territories (territorial dependencies) where a country’s law is completely recognized, only partially recognized, or may even have complete autonomy when it comes to intellectual property or trademark matters.

One of the common misconceptions of people who are not “in the know” about trademarks, is believing they will be able to prevent anyone else from using their trademark simply by registering it. While this has some degree of truth, the statement needs some clarification.