How do I get something trademarked?

[tupac]

How do I trademark the name of a project? I've asked before and the only response I've gotten was about it not being free(I'm already aware of this). Will someone please explain the process of trademarking something?

[bearchan]

Try the Patent & Trademark Office, a part of the Department of Commerce

[troyes]

www.uspto.gov that is the website to the patent and trademark office. Everything you need is contained within the website.

[vaiveatoish]

In the USA it actually IS free to obtain trademark protection. You just start using the brand on your goods and services in commerce and you automatically acquire a "trademark". You may OPTIONALLY register it in one or more states or in the USPTO. Registration provides valuable evidence of your priority and defines the scope of the products and services to which you are applying it. Federal registration (a few hundred dollars) gives you national priority over anyone else coming along with a similar name in a similar field.

Of course, if you are NOT the first, then someone else can force you to change your trademark. That is why people with valuable trademark ideas often obtain a "clearance" opinion from an attorney who has evaluated a professionally crafted search of hundreds of databases.