Are you a business owner who’s yet to protect your company name or brand with a trademark? Beware of the decision to cut corners and handle the process yourself might be a costly mistake. In this eye-opening article, we reveal the hidden costs of going solo in the trademark process and explain how hiring a trademark lawyer can actually save you money, time, and headaches. Don’t let the future of your brand be in jeopardy, read on to discover why expert assistance is crucial in safeguarding your hard-earned reputation and success.
How Do You Legally Trademark Something?
Do you have a unique name, logo, symbol, tagline, or design you would like to legally protect? If so, you need to protect it with a trademark. Though the do-it-yourself (DIY) trademark is tempting, taking this route can not only cost you more in the long run but may jeopardize your chances of successfully protecting your mark.
Take the smart approach by hiring a trademark lawyer, and you’ll rest easy knowing the trademark you obtain provides knowledgeable legal protection, saving you money, time, and frustration and allowing you to focus on growing your business.
What Can Be Trademarked?
A trademark can be any word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination of these things that identifies your goods or services. It’s how customers recognize you in the marketplace and distinguish you from your competitors. A trademark accomplishes three goals:
- Identifies the source of your goods or services;
- Provides legal protection for your brand; and
- Helps you guard against fraud and counterfeiting.
It is important to note that some things, although associated with goods and services, cannot be trademarked: generic terms, phrases, descriptive names, government symbols or insignias, vulgar or disparaging words or phrases, or proper names or likenesses without consent.
Can I Register a Trademark Myself?
If you are like most entrepreneurs and other business professionals, you are a self-starter and embrace the DIY ethos. Your thought process likely brought you to the question of whether you can register trademarks on your own. Indeed, it is possible to register a trademark on your own but do the risks outweigh the rewards?
Though it is possible to file a trademark application on your own, it may come with more expensive and time-consuming hurdles down the road. Hire an experienced trademark attorney to do the work on your behalf and you’ll sidestep costly legal challenges down the line.
The most common challenge DIY applicants face is how to respond to any Office Actions related to your trademark application. Whether the office is associated with a conflicting mark, descriptive/genericness, or improper specimen, these refusals require legal research and a proper response if you want to receive a notice of allowance on your trademark application. More importantly these common grounds of refusal take time and further financial effort to properly address.
At RLG we have not only simplified the trademark process with our fixed-fee approach, but we have removed all the risk by providing a money-back guarantee on all trademark applications. What does that mean for your application? Simple: if your trademark application does not receive a notice of allowance for any reason, we refund all your money without any questions asked.
The Hidden Costs of The DIY Trademark
From the potential for costly and frustrating filing errors that do not comply with the court’s requirements to the flat-out rejection of trademark applications, all sorts of pitfalls can arise with DIY attempts. Factor in the likelihood of one or several infringement claims or legal disputes that chew up time and money after a flawed DIY trademark attempt, and you have the perfect storm for financial disaster.
Your time is worth money. The DIY trademark requires a considerable investment of time and effort that might prove to be in vain. Your time is best spent focusing on building your business, analyzing the competition, serving clients, and adding to your team. Weigh these opportunity costs against the money necessary to file a trademark with the USPTO the right way on the first try, and you will find it is cheaper, quicker, and more reassuring to let our legal team handle this challenge on your behalf.
Why Hiring a Trademark Lawyer Is a Worthy Investment
Take a moment to consider the amount of time necessary to develop an accurate legal understanding of the trademarking process. Factor in the time required to fill out a trademark application and respond to any Office Action amendments against going with a firm that has not only filled thousands of successful trademark applications but offers a money-back guarantee.
Lean on a trademark attorney with experience in intellectual property matters to navigate the trademarking process on your behalf, and you’ll emerge with full confidence, knowing that that business and branding has the right legal protections behind it. Our legal team has experience conducting trademark searches and getting trademarks registered. We perform exhaustive analyses of current trademarks to ensure your requested mark doesn’t conflict with others and properly file your application so you can focus on what really matters- scaling your business.
Once a comprehensive trademark search is complete, we will draft and file the application with the USPTO, setting the stage for approval. We sweat all the small stuff of the application process to help keep you free of common pitfalls and bureaucratic requirements that trip up others. Our assistance also extends to ensuring your trademark has sufficient maintenance and is fully enforced moving forward.
What Questions Should I Ask a Trademark Attorney?
We strongly encourage you to take the opportunity to meet with our trademark attorneys, explain your business goals and ask any questions. Understanding your business and future goals will help us shape a tailored approach to your trademark portfolio.
We invite you to pick our attorney’s brains regarding how the trademark registration process works, including the timeline for registering the trademark and the cost of the process and all future maintenance/renewal fees you can expect with your trademark.
Don’t be afraid to inquire about the advantages to filing an international trademark application and whether they may be a good fit for your business goals. We understand that intellectual property matters are complicated and experience matters, so please ask our team of attorneys any questions.
Is a Trademark Attorney the Same as a Patent Attorney?
The main difference between a trademark and patent attorney centers around the type of legal protections you are seeking. Trademark attorneys assist clients in protecting a business name, logo, slogan, or brand. In contrast, patent attorneys assist clients in protecting their proprietary products, process, and methods. While both applications are filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, trademarks are designed to protect branding while patents protect inventions.
Trademark Lawyer Cost: How Much and Is It Worth It?
We encounter thousands of clients every year who are on the fence between filing a DIY application and retaining our firm typically for one reason alone: cost. In general, trademark attorneys charge a couple thousand dollars for searching, preparing, and filing your trademark application without any promises or guarantees of success. We understand your frustrations in this antiquated process and have introduced our money-back guarantee, so the anxiety of endless billing and uncertainty are put to rest.
Cheap Online Trademark Services: The Pros and Cons
With a simple click you can search the web for cheapt trademark services available online, and you’ll find no shortage of options starting at $49. However, if you were to ask those who leaned on low-cost web-based trademark services, you would find the vast majority regretted their decision and found the offers are loaded with hidden fees and costs. Moreover, these low-cost online services are often located outside the United States where your matters are not handled by a licensed attorney, but by a legal assistant unversed in U.S. trademark law who primarily review applications for spelling and grammatical errors as opposed to the substantive examination and preparation of your trademark application. These low-cost options are notorious for cutting corners with your application as they are designed for volume not quality. While an experienced trademark attorney may charge you more initially than one of these low-cost options, their long-term advice will likely save your thousands of dollars in the long run.
Trademark Lawyer Near Me: Is It Required?
While most attorney are limited to practicing legal matters in a single state, trademark attorneys are eligible to practice trademark law in all 50 states and U.S. territories. Instead of choosing the cheapest local trademark attorney that appears in your Google search results after conducting a query, opt for a legal team that is confident enough in its work product that it offers a money-back guarantee.
How Fast Can I Get a Trademark?
The sooner you file your trademark application, the faster you’ll receive the benefits of comprehensive legal protection that stifles potential use by competitors. The current pendency time between filing your application and receiving a notice of allowance from the USPTO is approximately 6 – 8 months.
Although the wait time may be long, once you file you trademark application you secure your position in the USPTO trademark database. That is, you are protected from other potential conflicts that come after your filing. Getting your trademark filed is the first big step in protecting your trademark.
Consult With Experienced US Trademark Lawyers
Every business should consider filing a trademark application to protect it brand and products. In today’s global economy, the likelihood of a competitor with a similar name is very possible and your ability to defend your brand and secure your legal rights depend on you filing for trademark protection. At the Rapacke Law Group, we provide a money-back guarantee on all trademark matters and ensure your mark is filed in 3-5 business days. Our attorney will start the trademark application process by conducting a comprehensive trademark search and advising you on the likelihood of registrability. Once we are confident that mark is available for registration we will promptly prepare and file your application and keep your apprised of all communication throughout the registration process. Please call today for a free trademark consultation or take our IP Quiz to find out what intellectual property protection is best for your business.
If you are interested in registering a trademark related to your business or business idea, don’t take the DIY route but go with professionals who are confident enough to offer a money-back guarantee..
Reach out to us today to schedule a free trademark strategy call.
