Accurate and thorough records are especially important if the trademark owner will not be registering the mark, but will be relying on common law rights instead. Trademark use records should not be subject to a company's routine paperwork destruction cycles, but should be retained indefinitely. If it is allowed, however, it will serve to establish the priority of the applicant's rights in the mark, effectively reserving the mark in the applicant's name for up to three years from allowance if all available extension periods are used. Adding in the current 16-month average prosecution time from filing to allowance for a federal application, this means a mark can conceivably be reserved for more than four years from the time it is selected and cleared. Obtain A Federal Registration Establishing rights in a mark throughout the entire U.S. requires either continuous use of the mark in all 50 states, or federal registration of the mark.
Federal registration is usually preferable.
For a trademark, this requirement may be met by selling goods, with the mark attached, across an state or international border. Such sales must be made to an independent buyer, and not simply from one division of a company to another. A minimal first shipment is generally allowable to establish rights in a mark, but must be followed by regular, substantial use of the mark within a commercially reasonable time. For a service mark, advertisements using the mark to promote the services must cross a state or international border. Federal registration serves as constructive notice to any potential infringers of the registrant's ownership of the mark.