US Trade Mark / LLC Question

[garyb]

if you are serious about work, yes.
otherwise, no.

oth- if you just have extra time and money, then yes. you never know.

try to identify the actual risks. that will help.

[valis]

Trademark must be registered AND enforced to hold water in court. It only applies within your geographical and economic market, and if you don't pursue trademark enforcement then you may give up those rights. Which means it's not like copyright (where you don't need to do a thing--in theory--to be covered, not even the 'poor man's copyright', though collecting royalties is another matter entirely of course). That also means that for trademarks to truly be effective, you have to keep a lawyer on retainer than can handle pursuing those claims. That's the technical aspects as I understand them.

I agree with GaryB though, if you intend to build the trademark(able) name to where it may be visible, then it's perhaps worth the extra time and money.

Check out the following wikipedia article, specifically the portion titled "Controversy with The Chemical Brothers"