Huizenga reintroduces bill to help small businesses trademark identity

Huizenga reintroduces bill to help small businesses trademark identity

LANSING, Mich. — Sen. Mark Huizenga on Tuesday reintroduced legislation to update the state’s trademark laws.

“This is about helping Michigan businesses — especially our locally owned small businesses — protect their brand and identity with a smoother, easier and less expensive trademark process,” said Huizenga, R-Walker. “Michigan’s outdated trademark requirements have been used by the state to deny protections that would normally have been approved in other states. We need to support our family businesses by simplifying our state’s trademark process and putting it in line with the rest of the country.”

Senate Bill 218 would amend Michigan’s trademark statute to update and clarify the definition of the term “trademark.” It removes the prohibition on trademarking a trade name in its entirety.

The bill is a reintroduction of SB 1035, which was unanimously approved by the Senate in 2022, but was never taken up for a vote in the House of Representatives.

“This bill would solve the problem of the state’s inconsistent approval of trademarks that include the name of the business seeking the trademark,” Huizenga said. “For example, if Sample Business, LLC applied to trademark ‘Sample Business’, there is currently no consistency on whether it would be approved or denied; and it is common for them to be denied.”

The bill has been referred to the Senate Regulatory Affairs Committee for consideration.

###

Editor’s note: Video of comments from Huizenga about the bill is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=_ltXrm9QBDY

Skip to content