Trademarks For Your Online Business: Are You Conducting Interstate Commerce?
By: Skylar Shafer
Under the Lanham Act, to register a trademark and receive protection under federal law, a mark must be used in or actively affect interstate commerce.[1] For traditional cases of physical commerce, the interstate commerce test has been refined over centuries.[2] This interstate component as a means of getting access to federal loss is not new, and is instead based on the Commerce Clause.[3] But what about when that commerce is over the internet? How do we determine if it is interstate commerce? How can a business-owner know if they can register their trademark or not? Let’s get into it.