It depends. In the United States, trademarks are provided “common law” rights and protection. Further, since many departments, schools, programs, and initiatives include “University of California Berkeley,” “UC Berkeley,” “Cal” in script, or the Berkeley seal, which have all been registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, these trademarks are afforded the additional protections available from federal registration. All of these marks and many more have been registered in various international territories. To see a list of trademarks that have been registered in international territories, visit our Trademarks page.

If you believe the name of your department, school, program, or initiative may be exploited by others in the United States or an international territory, you may wish to apply for trademark registration. Please note that you will be required to pay for the application and any legal fees that may be associated with the registration. Registrations in the U.S. are approximately $1,000 per trademark and classification, if the registration is not opposed by an individual or company that believes they have a similar trademark. Costs for international registrations are dependent on the territories in which the registrations are sought. Feel free to contact OMBO at ombo [at] berkeley [dot] edu for advice.