Picking a Brewery Name and Protecting it

First, you must understand the difference between a trademark or service mark vs copyright (see article from USPTO):

A TRADEMARK is a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. A service mark is a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than goods. Think brand names, slogans, and logos. The term “trademark” is often used to refer to both trademarks and service marks.  

A COPYRIGHT protects works of authorship that have been tangibly expressed in a physical form.  Think songs, books, movies, and works of art.   

Once you have your brand name, logo, or slogan, and you have done preliminary Google searches, Searched BeerAdvocate and RateBeer (it sounds basic but may save you a ton of time and headaches with a few simple searches) it’s time to get to know TESS (The US Trademark Office’s ‘Trademark Electronic Search System’). What you are looking for is the ‘likelihood of confusion’ which is the grounds upon which the Trademark Office would deny your trademark request. This means that you should not only search within your market but also any other market close to you. Recent battles have been seen between wineries and breweries, breweries and energy drinks and even wineries and kombucha.

Step 1 :
Go here
From there, you can run different types of searches with variables such as trademark name, goods and services, International Classification of goods and services, etc.

Step 2:
To search by trademark name, you can select the “Basic Word Mark Search (New User)” option. Don’t just stop at entering your proposed brewery name, though.

Click here for tips on more in-depth searching and watch a video here.

Step 3:
Hire an attorney to triple-check you

Watermark Design is not a legal practice and recommendations above are not legal advice, we recommend that you hire a professional attorney to protect your business.