Pat Concannon, a partner in Nutter’s Intellectual Property and Business Departments, analyzed why professional service firms need to safeguard their house marks in Nutter Insights. Pat discussed why a house mark is important to a business, what steps a professional service firm should take to protect its house marks, if house marks are subject to copyright protection, and if a company’s name is automatically considered a protectable house mark. According to Pat, registering house marks defines an overall brand identity that can be used like arrows in a quiver to ward off would-be infringers. Moreover, ownership of a robust portfolio of house marks serves as a disincentive to those who search the federal register when investigating the availability of potentially similar marks.