Qualifying Trademark Use — Framework Law Group

To qualify for registration, your trademark use must meet the following criteria:

Public Use: The trademark must be visible to the public (i.e., not just used on a private business registration).
Direct Association with Products or Services: The trademark must appear as branding directly identifying your products or services available for sale — for example, on a website header where offerings are sold, or on a product tag.
Availability for Sale: Your products or services must actually be available for sale (i.e., not just a “coming soon” page).

Most commonly, we prove trademark use in one of the following ways:

Websites: We show an example of your trademark displayed prominently on your website near a link where customers can purchase your offerings (e.g., on a checkout page), or near a clear call-to-action explaining how customers can move forward with your services.
Product Tags: If you are selling physical products, we can show a photo of the products with the trademark clearly appearing on the tag.

Certain references to your trademark do not meet the “use in commerce” requirement, for example:

Domains / Social Media Handles / LLCs: Registering domains, social media handles, an LLC, or similar registrations with the name do not count on their own.
Casual References: Simply mentioning your trademark on social media, or in a blog, podcast, or similar context, does not count by itself. To qualify, the trademark must specifically identify a particular product or service available for sale. For example, if you sometimes talk about “The Wild Abundance Method” as a concept, that is probably not trademark use. If you create a course called “The Wild Abundance Method” and market it for sale under that name, that is trademark use.
Decorative Use: For apparel brands, putting the name on a t-shirt or hat is considered decorative and doesn’t count as trademark use unless the trademark also appears on the product tag.
Varied Use: Variations of the trademark don’t count as use for the specific version you are trying to register. For example, qualifying use of “Abundance Method” does not count as trademark use of “The Wild Abundance Method.”
Fake Use: You can’t simply photoshop fake use of your trademark. Even if it is initially accepted by the USPTO, it can make your trademark vulnerable to cancellation and could subject you to penalties for misrepresentation.

Provable Use: It’s best to list a date that you are confident you could prove involved qualifying use of the trademark, in case anyone ever challenges it. For example, a digital receipt from one of your first sales can be a good date — just make sure it clearly shows your full trademark and the offerings sold.
Any Qualifying Date: The date we list does not need to be the absolute first qualifying date. When we file, we state that you were using the trademark “at least as early as…” the date listed, and you can still prove earlier use if needed.
Pick a Safe Date: If you aren’t sure, it’s better to err on a later date when you know you had qualifying use. Guessing an earlier date than you can support can make the trademark vulnerable to cancellation due to misrepresentation.