"If I wanted to TM a domain name, how long and how much does it cost?"
Standard response
#345:
I'm going to assume that you are referring to obtaining federal registration of a trademark in the US. The thing is, and what seems to be missed whenever the question is asked, the United States Patent and Trademark Office does not hand out "trademarks". What they do is to *register* trademarks. It is a registration system for something that already exists.
You obtain trademark rights by using a term in commerce in connection with goods or services in such a way that the term acts as a distinctive indicator of the source or origin of the goods (or as an inidcator of a particular quality of goods or services, even if the "source" is not known to the consumer).
Read that a few times. What it says is that you get trademark rights *automatically* by using a trademark.
Now, once you have a trademark, you might consider filing for federal registration of that trademark, in order to obtain a number of benefits and presumptions that go along with federal trademark registration.
One minor wrinkle is that you may file for federal registration on the basis of a bona fide intention to use a trademark, but even if the application is allowed, you do not obtain registration unless and until you begin use of the mark in commerce in connection with the identified goods and services.
Another wrinkle is that your ability to obtain registration, asssuming you are using the domain name as a trademark (and more than simply as an address), depends on what the domain name is. For example, you are not going to obtain federal registration of "turkeys.com" if your business consists of the sale of turkeys.
Filing an application for federal trademark registration costs a couple of hundred dollars. Depending on what the proposed mark is, and whether a third party decides to oppose your registration, the process may take anywhere from about 12 to 18 months, up to several years.
