Guides, tactics, and lessons for designers, indie founders, and online sellers — written by people who've shipped brands and dealt with conflicts.
10 articles
Our count of 34,595 opposition proceedings filed at the USPTO's TTAB from 2021 through 2025: how often owners oppose, the 22 most frequent filers, and the full data behind the table.
Trademark and copyright protect different parts of a brand. How each applies to your name, logo and content, who owns commissioned work, and when to register.
How to pick trademark classes for what you actually sell: the USPTO ID Manual, per-class fees at filing and renewal, and the filing rules that limit what you can change later.
The test behind most trademark refusals and disputes, in plain English: the DuPont factors, how courts apply their own circuit tests, and real cases on sight, sound, meaning and related goods.
A step-by-step way to check whether a brand name is already taken in the US: the USPTO register, sound-alike spellings, unregistered use, and when to bring in an attorney.
What the USPTO filing records actually show for three well-known brands, kept separate from the lessons, and what that means for when and how you file.
Twelve trademark and naming checks to run before launch, with what to record along the way and where a professional opinion is worth paying for.
Who owns a logo made with Midjourney or another AI tool? Copyright and trademark answer that differently, and the tool's terms add a third layer.
What each trademark search tool can find before you file: names, logos, unregistered use and marks abroad, based on the providers' own documentation and prices.
