Guide to Protecting Your Trademark against Infringement

Hire a monitoring service

A trademark monitoring service can identify possible infringement, whether it's the use of a company name or product that can easily be confused with yours, content on a Web site or use of a similar online domain name.

I recommend: Monitoring services such as those provided by LegalZoom, The Intellectual Property Exchange House, The Trademark Company, and Name Protect can help identify potential trademark violations.

Watch the search engines

Regularly type your company and product names and your Web site URL into the engines – you may find competitors using your trademarks in Web site content or advertising to try to lure your customers.Ask the search engine companies to take down the ads.

I recommend: For a good explanation of how to handle trademark violations on search engines, see the Pay Per Click Adcenter blog.Try the complaint pages for Google and Yahoo!.

Register with Customs

With so many cheap knock-offs of brand names coming to the U.S. from overseas, it pays to register your mark with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection service so Customs agents will be on the lookout.

I recommend: You can register online with Customs and get a certificate back.

Keep an attorney on retainer

If someone violates your trademark, you are entitled to file a lawsuit in federal court asking the court for a restraining order or injunction to prevent further violations, award monetary damages, if appropriate and, in some cases, award attorney fees.

I recommend: Attorneys specializing in trademark infringement can be found at AttorneyPages, LawInfo or FindLaw.