PRLA Restaurant & Lodging Matters Fall 2021

Fall 2021 • PENNSYLVANIA RESTAURANT & LODGING matters • 7 “Booking.com” was easily shown to be recognized by consumers as sourced to a specific entity and not generic. Registering trademarks with the USPTO is essential for brand protection. A federally registered trademark comes with the legal presumption of validity. Should you need to bring or defend an infringement action, a registration certificate proves ownership in federal court, eliminating the need for profuse amounts of evidence. Disputes over domain names are common. If a third party uses a confusingly similar domain name that threatens your business, a trademark registration proves ownership without the need for further evidence in a UDRP proceeding, which is a relatively inexpensive arbitration proceeding that all website owners may use to resolve trademark infringement disputes over registered domain names. In the information age, trademark registration may be the single most important step a business can take to protect its single most important investment. •