While you are entitled to certain common law rights without filing an appropriate trademark or copyright, these rights are enhanced through federal registration of the mark. Registering a trademark or copyright gives your company the general presumption of rights to the mark and allows you to use the annotation symbol ® rather than the symbol TM. If litigation arises with other parties claiming to have prior use of the mark, the claimant would possess the burden of proving such a claim. Finally, registration gives you the statutory right to request attorneys’ fees after successfully defending such claims against you.