A Federal trademark registration (as opposed to a state trademark registration or common law trademark rights) provides constructive nation-wide notice that you are using a mark on the goods and/or services listed in your trademark registration. In sum, the U.S. Congress expanded common law trademark policy through the enactment of the federal trademark registration system. The federal trademark registration system provides constructive notice to other participants in the marketplace and prospective participants in the marketplace that a registrant is using the federally registered trademark and the federal registration system establishes priority in the rights afforded to the registrant. Federal trademark registration benefits the registrant by providing nationwide notice that the registrant is using the mark, benefits participants in the marketplace by allowing the participants to “rely upon a search of the trademark registry and their own personal knowledge of whether the mark has been used so that what may be substantial expenditures of money promoting the mark will not be wasted,” and benefits the consumer by allowing the consumer to rely on a trademark of a good in making a purchase without having to worry about purchasing a good of different quality than expected. Natural Footwear, Ltd. v Hart, Schaffner & Marx, 760 F.2d 1383, 1395 (3rd Cir. 1985)
In sum, a Federal trademark registration provides your company with a legitimate priority date and, in the event other companies unknown to you have been using the mark, locks in the territory of those prior users. Without a federal trademark registration, it is a race between the parties to establish customer recognition, i.e. secondary meaning, of the unregistered mark in unoccupied territory.