Tag Archives: Indiana State Trademark

Federal Registration vs. Indiana State Trademark Registration

22 Thursday Oct 2026

Posted by in Indiana, Intellectual Property, Trademark

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Indiana will register a trademark for ten dollars. The filing is on INBiz. The term is five years. The Secretary of State wants a specimen showing the mark is already in use in the state. That is the whole transaction. It is useful. It is also the source of more confident emails than it deserves.

The Indiana Trademark Act, Indiana Code 24-2, is a state registry. It is not the Lanham Act with a smaller map. The Secretary of State’s own page says the office does not resolve ownership fights, and that accepting a filing does not establish rights in the mark. The applicant is told to check other states and the USPTO. A lot of applicants do not.

What the $10 actually buys

A live Indiana registration is evidence that you claimed the mark, for the goods or services you listed, as of the filing. It can support a state-law infringement claim. Common-law rights are preserved either way — IC 24-2-1-15 says the chapter does not wipe them out. If your customers, your sign, and your competitors are all in one Indiana county, the state filing can be a cheap way to put a date on the public record.

That is the “enough” case. A one-location shop. A local service name. No plan to ship, franchise, or open in Louisville. Even then, the filing does not clear the name. It records it.

Where it becomes a trap

The trap is treating the certificate like a deed.

It does not reach Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, or Michigan. A food truck that works the Indiana State Fair and a festival in Cincinnati is already outside the paper. It does not put the mark in the federal database that a later applicant’s search is built on. It does not stop someone else from filing at the USPTO. It does not give you nationwide constructive notice. It does not let you record with Customs. It does not, by itself, get you into federal court.

This blog has already watched the mismatch. In the Legacy chiropractor fight, one side filed a federal application and the other obtained an Indiana registration the same morning. Two offices. Two pieces of paper. One lawsuit in the Northern District. In Twisted Tater, the plaintiff had Indiana registrations — a logo from 2016, the word mark in April 2024 — and filed federally two days before the word-mark state filing. The state certificates did not end the argument. They became part of the complaint.

Same-day races are the tell. If both sides think a ten-dollar filing settles a name that has been in use for years, somebody has been reading the certificate as a judgment. The Secretary of State does not issue those.

The ® still does not attach

The federal registration symbol is for a mark the USPTO has registered. An Indiana certificate is not that. A pending federal application is not that either. Use TM until the federal registration issues, and only on the goods or services in that registration. The longer version is in the 2026 ® post.

Putting ® next to a state registration number is how a local filing becomes an exhibit in somebody else’s fraud paragraph. Do not do that.

Which one to file

File the state mark if you want a cheap Indiana record and you already use the name here. File federally if the name matters outside one market, if you want the presumptions that come with a Principal Register registration, or if you would rather be the person who shows up in a clearance search. The fee math for that filing is in the 2026 fee edition. The state fee is not a discount on the federal one. They are different rights.

You can hold both. Plenty of Indiana businesses do. Just do not tell a competitor, or a customer, that the INBiz receipt is the one that counts nationwide. The Secretary of State already told you it does not.

Stay tuned for the docket notes.

Kenan L. Farrell, KLF Legal, Indianapolis

Indiana Trademark Registration

08 Tuesday Jan 2019

Posted by in Indiana, Intellectual Property, Trademark

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Clients often inquire whether they should register their trademarks at the State or Federal level.  Starting with the assumption that even small local businesses may encounter a challenge to their trademark in the future, I generally try to impress upon them the advantages of federal registration.  After all, many of my clients end up being very successful and seek to expand outside of Indiana’s borders. With the exponential growth of “e-commerce,” the Internet is providing opportunities for national and global expansion, even for the smallest Indiana businesses.  It is therefore important for businesses of all types and sizes to choose and protect their trademarks with care…often this can mean protection at BOTH the State and Federal level.

Here’s a quick primer on registration of a trademark in Indiana:

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Trademarks are registered with the Indiana Secretary of State.

Registration of a trademark with the Indiana Secretary of State creates a legal presumption of the registrant’s ownership of the mark and the registrant’s exclusive right to use the mark in Indiana commerce in connection with the goods or services described in the application.  (A federal registration would protect your trademark in all 50 states.)

The Indiana Trademark Act (IC 24-2) protects words, phrases, symbols or designs, or any combinations thereof when they are used to distinguish the source of the goods or services rendered by one party from the goods or services of another party. Marks are checked against other marks registered in Indiana, but not against corporate, fictitious, or assumed names.

Indiana trademark rights arise from actual use of the mark in commerce, i.e. no “intent-to-use” applications.

A mark cannot be registered until it has been used in Indiana. Indiana defines a mark being “used” when it is placed in any manner on the goods or their containers or on the tags or labels affixed thereto, or when it is used to identify the services of one person and distinguish them from the services of others, and such goods or services are sold, otherwise distributed, or rendered in this state.

So what are some of the main benefits of state registration over federal registration?  It’s cheaper (State: $10/class vs. Federal $325/class) and quicker.  I’ve seen turnaround of weeks, not years as with the USPTO.  It can be a good remedy for a purely local entity.  State registration provides an increased level of trademark protection…at least you can claim protection on your “home turf.”  However, in the long run, I’d recommend that any entity which anticipates expanding outside of Indiana, particularly via Internet “e-commerce,” should seek federal trademark registration to best protect their valuable trademark rights.

I look forward to hearing from proponents of State registration…how has an Indiana State registration uniquely benefitted either you or your clients?