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Patrick J. Concannon, a partner in Nutter’s Intellectual Property and Business Departments, authored an article on how businesses should be wary of protecting marks that identify their product and service offerings at the expense of their house marks in Intellectual Property Magazine. In the article, “Making sure house marks hit the mark,” Pat analyzes 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. He points out that failure to secure registration protection for at least one or two aspects of a business’ house mark, can leave the business poorly positioned to confront brand abusers. Moreover, ownership of a robust portfolio of house marks serves as a disincentive to those who search the national trademark registers when investigating the availability of potentially similar marks.