Trademark and copyright revisit

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hello,

I will very soon complete my first collection (18k, diamonds), and I
am planning to try and sell it in the USA (I currently live in
Israel).

After going through all of the relevant threads on Orchid, I have a
few questions about Trademark and Copyright:

Trademark:

I understand I must register my hallmark as a trademark in order to
legally sell the pieces in the US. My questions are:

  1. Seeing that the trademark registration process takes about a
    year, can I legally start selling the jewelry after I filed
    trademark request, or do I need to wait until the registration
    process is complete (doesn’t sound plausible…)?

  2. I read that in the trademark application process, I must submit
    prood that the trademark is already being used. How do I do that? I
    mean, isn’t the whole point that I am not allowed to sell the
    jewelry (thereby to use the trademark) until I register the
    trademark?

Copyright:

  1. As a jewelry piece is copyrighted the moment it is made, is it OK
    to mention that a ring’s design (for example) is copyrighted? Or do
    I need to register the design in order to be able to say that?

  2. Does the copyright help me against someone who copied my design,
    and just used different color stones, or other minor changes?

Please compare the following two rings, one by Boucheron and one by
a “designer”:

I. Designer:

eBay link removed, Sorry no eBay links on Orchid

II. Boucheron: boucheron.com (type “frog” in the search
box on the bottom right)

Thanks for sharing your knowledge,
Jonathan