After a good bit of effort and having been denied more than once, we finally received our trademark from the United States Patent and Trademark Office!
Obtaining a trademark for one’s business is an important step in protecting intellectual property rights. I was first referred by an associate to a law firm that specializes in this sort of thing. After providing the attorney all the information and paying a slightly hefty fee, I received notice from the USPTO that my request was denied. Why? Because there happened to be a travel agency that used the named “Uncharted”. Though its business was/is totally different than ours, the reviewer claimed that if someone looking for this “other” Uncharted company should stumble upon our Uncharted Japan site, the individual could be confused and suffer financial loss somehow. WHAT???
So I asked my attorney and he basically said “Cough up another $2,500 and we can fix this. But no guarantees.” Ahem….. “no thank you” was my reply. So I took it upon myself to do the paperwork and appeal. Denied again. So I doubled down and appealed again.
This time I pointed out that the “other” Uncharted was a company specializing in African safaris and environmental conservation. They book and lead actual tours in Africa and have nothing to do with Japan. I pointed out that they have do not do anything with video on Youtube whereas pretty much all we do is videos. I pointed out that they are solely involved in Africa and we are solely involved in Japan. And though they have a Facebook page, there hadn’t been an update to that page in years. There is no way that if someone looking for an African safari should type in the word “uncharted”, and for some reason our Uncharted Japan site should pop up, would they ever confuse the two companies. I further pointed out that we don’t even sell anything! So how could an unwitting consumer be harmed by landing on our page and not the other? I said to the review attorney at the USTPO “If someone is intelligent enough to operate a computer and surf the net specifically for a safari company, surely such a person would be able to discern that Uncharted Japan and this other one are not the same. I mean, who’s ever heard of a Japanese safari?!
So after several months of silence, and pretty much forgetting about it, I received an email from the USTPO saying that no one had objected to the publication of our trademark and in a short while I should receive the above certificate! What a pleasant surprise! So we are more legitimate than ever. Now if we can only get more views on our videos and have Youtube pay us more than the price of two coffees at Starbucks!