Answer
How do I license my trademark?
Lawyers call this: trademark license · quality control · related companies · 15 U.S.C. § 1055
Short answer
A license is permission for someone else to use your mark while you keep owning it. Put it in writing, and keep control over the quality of what the licensee sells under your name. That control is not a formality. A license that gives it up can weaken the mark or, in the worst case, cost you your rights in it.
You do not need to file the license with the USPTO. Recording it is optional.
What changes the answer
- How much control you keep
- The law lets a licensee’s use count as yours only if you control the nature and quality of the goods or services. Spell out standards, the right to inspect, and the right to approve samples, and then actually use those rights.
- What the license covers
- Name the mark, the exact goods or services, and any product lines left out. A license for “apparel” and a license for “t-shirts” are different deals.
- Where and how long
- Territory and term set the edges. Say whether the license is exclusive, whether you can license others in the same area, and how it ends.
- How you get paid
- A royalty on sales, a flat fee, or a minimum payment each year. Define the sales base and the reporting and audit rights, or the royalty is hard to enforce.
- What happens at the end
- Say how long the licensee has to sell off inventory, and that all use stops after that. Say that the licensee’s use builds your rights, not theirs.
The rule
Use of a mark by a related company counts as use by the owner, as long as the owner controls the nature and quality of the goods or services. 15 U.S.C. § 1055. A “related company” is any person whose use of the mark the owner controls in that way. 15 U.S.C. § 1127.
A license with no real quality control is called a naked license. Federal law treats a mark as abandoned when the owner’s conduct, including acts of omission, causes the mark to lose its significance as a mark. Id. Courts have applied that definition to owners who licensed without controlling quality. How much control is enough depends on the facts and on the court.
No statute requires a trademark license to be recorded. The USPTO may record other documents that affect a mark, such as a license, at the Director’s discretion. 37 C.F.R. § 3.11(a) (2026). Recording is not a finding that the document is valid. 37 C.F.R. § 3.54 (2026).
What to do next
Before anyone else uses your mark, decide what you will allow and how you will check it. Write down the product standards you already follow. Those become the core of the quality-control terms.
Trademark Valet does not provide license templates. A license is a contract that fits one relationship, and a generic form tends to leave out the terms that decide disputes, such as control, termination and who owns improvements.
Even a small, informal arrangement should be put in writing. That includes letting your own separate company, or a family member’s business, use the mark.
If you are about to license your mark, Valet Law, PLLC can draft the agreement and set quality-control terms you can actually enforce.
Attorney review is provided by Valet Law, PLLC, a law firm separate from Trademark Valet, LLC. Keep confidential facts out of public tools. Your first message to Valet Law should identify the parties and the general issue only. Wait until Valet Law confirms it can discuss the matter before sending confidential details.
Who checked this
Reviewed and approved by Brandon Leavitt on 2026-10-02.
General information about how trademark law works. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not make anyone your lawyer.