trade mark question?

Question

I have a website for graphic design, its kind of like my own freelancing but I have a name for it so its more like a small business, but can I still put the "TM" symbol on it even though I am not paying to have it actually trade marked? If business gets big I will eventually I am just wondering what I should do. Thanks.

Answer 1

A registration of a trademark is not required in Canada. The owner of a common law trademark may also file suit, but an unregistered mark may be protectable only within the geographical area within which it has been used or in geographical areas into which it may be reasonably expected to expand.
Look up the name up in a Trademark database and do a Coorporation name search to make sure the name has not been used.
You may just want to register the name and you can add the R circled symbol

Answer 2

TM is not the name of the company. It is the name of a product, service etc. For example Mickey Mouse is not a company, but it is a trademark of the Disney Company.

If you are running a business then you should (by law) register your business name. That way you can cash checks made out to your business name.

Simply

You can trade using your own name.
If you use a business name you must register it.
Anything original you create on your web page (such as logos, text etc is copyright).
Logos need a seperate registration, but as this is fairly difficult most small companies do not register their business logo (the problem is searching for similar logos).
Slogans and other things have a certain degree of implicit trademarking, which has protection underlaw.
Certain intellectual property can be trademarked. Such as names, cartoon characters etc. Very few small companies will care about this.

Using the trademark symbol for something that is not trademarked is infact illegal (you are misrepresenting yourself and your company). The copyright symbol can and should be used (you don't have to use it) but it means people can't say they didn't realise it was not copyright, when it is on the paper.

Finally, being overly anal retentitve about the copyright and trademarking means clients may be turned off because your care more about the little B.S. things rather than the large money making activities