We offer a wide range of services relating to trademarks, but for most clients what they need is assistance with the trademark application process. The application process can be deceptively simple, or it can be overwhelming complex; it all depends on your mark and your services or product. We start by getting to know your business, understanding your services or products, and helping you assess what registration options are best suited to your needs.
Filing a federal trademark registration is a relatively simple process to do for the most basic marks. Trademarks, however, are interpreted strictly according to the information and claims in the application. Having a precise, well-tailored application can enhance your claims, give you broader protection, and give you the best chance of successfully defending your mark against infringing competitors.
The attorneys in our firm have been successfully prosecuting trademark applications for decades, and John has been teaching intellectual property law, including trademark law, for over twenty years. We would like the opportunity to work with you on tailoring a trademark application that will give you broad protection for your valuable marks, with the requisite specificity to allow you to defend your brand against infringers. We provide personalized service for your application, not just a simple standard application process for everyone. Since trademark infringement involves not just exact duplication of a mark but extends to confusingly similar words, phrases or images, we not only search for the specific terms you wish to include but for closely related terms as well. This search is designed to provide you with as much information as possible prior to filing for registration in order to minimize the risk of potential problems later on. We also customize the application to fit your business, rather than relying on the pre-populated list of generic descriptions that many applicants use. This individually tailored approach is designed to make sure that the mark you register is well suited to your particular business.
Our firm offers a reasonable flat fee for trademark registration applications starting at $500 (plus the USPTO filing fees), although more complicated applications may require a higher fee. We will be able to determine the total cost of the application before we begin, which means you won't have to worry about a surpise fee increase down the road. Unlike many low-cost services, our fee includes not only our services relating to filing the registration application but responding to any procedural requests and office actions from the Trademark Office’s examining attorney. If a third party opposes your trademark registration we would be happy to represent you in those proceedings, but that representation would require an additional fee.
Selecting the right logo, name, or slogan is important to any business, and we are here to help with every step along the way. Selecting a name requires more than just coming up with something catchy; it also requires coming up with something that is not infringing on another business' trademark rights. Not only will selecting the proper mark help you avoid infringement or unfair competition claims, it will allow you to confidently invest in advertising and marketing by helping you identify what marks are available and eligible for trademark protection.
We offer free initial consultations to help you determine what rights you may already have to names, slogans and logos used by your business, and to help you decide what sort of trademark protection you need for your business.
Trademarks are not like domain names on the internet; just because the exact mark is not taken doesn't mean that it is available, and you may be infringing if you use a name, phrase, or logo that is too similar to another business offering similar or related services or products. Whether you are about to start a new business, or if you are expanding your advertising, we can help you select a trademark to suit your needs.
Trademark rights last as long as you continue to use the mark in commerce. Trademark registrations do not. Federal trademark registrations have to be renewed periodically in order to verify that they are still in use. If your business misses a renewal period the registration will be cancelled.
Since trademarks only need to be renewed every five to ten years it is easy to miss a renewal deadline if your business is not in the business of trademarks. We offer flat-fee trademark renewal services to help ensure that you keep your registration for as long as you use your mark.
