With St. Patrick's Day right around the corner, Trademarkology turns its attention to all things Irish. Beyond the green beer and parades, this holiday honors the patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick, who introduced Christianity to the Irish people. According to Irish folklore, he used the shamrock to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity.

Of course, the modern incarnation of St. Patrick's Day pays homage to Irish culture and heritage, and there is no shortage of ways to celebrate in our hometown of Nashville, Tennessee:

The Greenhouse Bar will be hosting a weekend-long St. Patrick's Day festival;

Dan McGuinness Irish Pub has planned a 3-day celebration, which includes a pub crawl on Saturday with Tin Roof, Two Bits and Dawg House;

There will be a St. Patrick's Day Festival on Saturday at East Park in East Nashville;

Downtown Franklin will be hosting its annual Main Street Brew Fest; and

The 3rd annual St. Patrick's Day Kegs & Eggs 5/10k is Sunday in the Gulch.

If you want to dive deeper into Irish political, economic, social and cultural issues, then the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database is a useful starting point. You will find registrations for newspapers like the THE IRISH TIMES (U.S. Reg. No. 2,629,569), which is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and IRISH ECHO (U.S. Reg. No. 2,160,204), which bills itself as "the USA's most widely read Irish-American newspaper":

If you need more reading material, you will also find registrations for the THE IRISH EXAMINER (U.S. Reg. No. 3,168,765) and IRISH AMERICA magazine (U.S. Reg. No. 2,484,853):

If all that reading makes you thirsty, then there are a number of excellent options. Below you will find logos for GUINNESS (U.S. Reg. No. 3,284,454), MURPHY'S IRISH STOUT (U.S. Reg. No. 1,847,441), BAILEYS ORIGINAL IRISH CREAM (U.S. Reg. No. 1,185,090), and Great Lakes Brewing Co.'s CONWAY'S IRISH ALE (U.S. Reg. No. 4,170,719):

These trademark owners don't rely on the luck of the Irish to protect their brands and neither should you. After all, it was an Irish American aerospace engineer, Edward Murphy, who famously stated, "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." Federal trademark registration provides enhanced legal protection for your brand, such as a presumptive right to nationwide use of the trademark. A federal trademark registration also makes enforcement activities less expensive and can lead to a greater recovery in a lawsuit. In addition, a federal trademark registration can increase the value of your business as investors and buyers usually see federal trademark protection as an indicator of established brand value and sound business protection.

The lawyers at Trademarkology provide online trademark registration services backed by the experience and service of one of the nation's oldest law firms. Click here to begin the process of protecting your brand name with a federally registered trademark.