Saint+Alks-patent+&+Trademark

__ **Patent and Trademark Requirements** __ A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the Patent and Trademark Office. The term of a new patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the patent was filed in the United States or in special cases from the date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the payment of maintenance fees. A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device which is used in trade with goods to indicate the source of the goods and to distinguish them from the goods of others. A service mark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from a confusingly similar mark, but not to prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods or services under a clearly different mark. In order to get “Skull Vodka” up and running as a new Spirit under Bacardi we would have to apply for liquor license. This can take up to a year depending on where you live. The license can cost up to $500 or as much as $70,000. Many states have a liquor license quota, so you may not be able to get your liquor license if the quota has been filled. The application process can be extensive. If you have a criminal record you would have to submit a letter explaining the situation, which can be refused by the states. There are five classes of liquor licenses: We also had to come up with a domain name for our website and check that the name was unique. In order to do this we had to go to godaddy.com, and we typed in “skullvodka.com and it was already taken. So we then had to type in a new domain name “skullantioxidant.com” and this was available for use. In order to have this domain name as our website, it was $10.69 a year as a start up cost to maintain the website with this domain name.
 * 1) __On License:__ authorizes the licensee to sell liquor on the premises for consumption on those premises.
 * 2) __Off License:__ authorizes the licensee to sell liquor on the licensed premises in sealed containers to persons for consumption away from those premises.
 * 3) __General License:__ authorizes the licensee to sell liquor on the licensed premises.
 * 4) __Special License:__ authorizes the sale of liquor.
 * 5) __Club License:__ authorizes the club by which the license is held to supply liquor on the licensed premises of the club to members of the club and persons on those premises at the invitation of a member of the club who is present on those premises.

Click here to return to Contents page