How to Trademark a Business Name (2026 Step-by-Step Guide)

Written by Mary Liberty, licensed U.S. trademark attorney. Updated July 2026 · 8 min read

Registering an LLC does not protect your brand. I say this to at least one founder a week, usually after they have already printed the packaging. Your Secretary of State filing stops another company from forming under the exact same legal name in your state. It does nothing to stop a business three states over from selling a competing product under your name — and it gives you no right to use the ® symbol. Federal trademark registration is the thing that actually locks down a name nationwide. Here is how the process really works, in the order I walk clients through it.

First, understand what you are actually registering

A trademark is not your logo, your domain, or your business license. It is a source identifier — the word, phrase, or design that tells a customer who stands behind a product or service. "Nike" is a trademark. The swoosh is a separate trademark. The company name on the incorporation papers is neither, unless you also use it to sell things.

This distinction matters because it decides what you can protect. If your business name is only ever on your bank account and your tax return, there is nothing to register. If it is on your website, your labels, your app store listing — the places customers see it and associate it with what you sell — then it functions as a trademark and you can claim it federally.

Step 1 — Clear the name before you fall in love with it

The single most expensive mistake I see is skipping the search. Founders check that the domain is available and the Instagram handle is free, decide the name is theirs, and spend months building around it. Domains and handles have nothing to do with trademark availability. A name can be wide open on GoDaddy and completely blocked at the USPTO.

Start with a knock-out search of the federal register — a quick pass to see whether an identical or near-identical mark already exists for related goods. Our free instant search queries live USPTO records and gives you a preliminary read in seconds. If that comes back clean, the next step is a proper clearance search that looks at phonetic equivalents, misspellings, design marks, and common-law uses that never made it to the register. That is what the $49 attorney report covers, and it is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy against a wasted $350 filing fee.

Step 2 — Choose the right classes

Every application is filed in one or more of 45 international classes — 34 for goods, 11 for services. Your protection only reaches the classes you actually claim. A coffee roaster who registers in Class 30 (coffee) has no rights over someone using the same name on Class 25 (t-shirts) unless they also file there.

This is why the same word can have several owners. "Dove" is soap in one class and chocolate in another, owned by two unrelated companies, because no shopper confuses a candy bar with a bar of soap. Picking classes is not clerical work — it is a strategic decision about where your brand needs a fence and where it does not. Most single-product businesses need one class. A brand that sells a physical product and runs an online service around it often needs two.

Step 3 — Pick your filing basis

The USPTO wants to know one thing about timing: are you already using the name in commerce, or do you only intend to? If you are selling under the name today — shipping product, taking payment — you file under Section 1(a), use in commerce, and you submit a specimen showing real-world use.

If the brand is still pre-launch, you file under Section 1(b), intent-to-use. This is one of the most underused tools in trademark law. It lets you plant a flag before you sell a single unit, locking in a priority date that beats anyone who files after you. You prove use later, once you have launched, by filing a Statement of Use. For a founder in stealth mode building toward a launch, filing intent-to-use six months early can be the difference between owning the name and losing it to a faster competitor.

Step 4 — Prepare and file the application

This is where the details decide everything. The application names the owner (get this exactly right — an individual and their LLC are different legal persons), lists the goods and services in language the USPTO will accept, attaches the specimen if you are filing on use, and pays the fee. The description of goods is deceptively tricky: too narrow and you under-protect the brand, too broad or vague and you draw a refusal. Using the USPTO's own Trademark ID Manual descriptions keeps the fee at the base $350 per class and avoids a surcharge.

A licensed attorney files through TEAS, the electronic system, and — this is the part DIY services skip — becomes the correspondent of record so that every USPTO letter comes to someone who knows what to do with it. When you file yourself, those letters come to you, often with deadlines and legalese that are easy to misread.

Step 5 — Examination, and what can go sideways

After filing, your application sits in a queue for a few months before a USPTO examining attorney reviews it. If everything is in order, it gets published for opposition — a 30-day window where third parties can object — and then registers. Realistically, expect eight to fourteen months start to finish for a smooth application. Nothing you or your attorney does speeds up the government's review clock.

The most common hiccup is an office action: an official letter raising an issue. Some are procedural (fix a description, swap a specimen) and quick to resolve. Others are substantive — most often a likelihood-of-confusion refusal citing an existing mark — and those need a real legal argument. A thorough clearance search up front is how you avoid most of them, but not all; even clean applications sometimes draw a refusal, which is exactly why having an attorney already on the file matters.