The value of a trademark depends on the degree of recognition and goodwill associated with the mark by the buying public, that is, potential customers of the relevant goods or services. Do your customers recognize the mark and do they identify it with your goods or services, as opposed to the goods and services of others.nnThe best way to protect a mark, the best way to ensure that people recognize it and give it value, is to begin using the mark properly as a mark as soon as possible in connection with actual sales of your goods or services. As a general rule, the first to use the mark for certain goods or services in a geographic area will have a right of priority over later adopters of the same or similar marks in the same area for similar goods or services.