Many business owners think they can register a trademark themselves using an online service.
Why not save yourself a little money, right?
But those business owners don’t realize that they’re trading in their savings for a lot of headaches, and they could be jeopardizing the whole process to boot.
Hiring an attorney to register your trademark ensures much better guidance and advice, a smoother, less stressful experience, and an increased chance for successful registration.
And when approximately 1 in 5 trademark applications gets rejected annually, you want to do everything in your power to ensure your application is among the ones that make it through.
**Before we go any further, we need a disclaimer: this is legal education and information. It’s not business, financial, or legal advice, and it doesn’t create an attorney-client relationship between us.
This is also an attorney communication under Rule 7.2 of the Rules of Professional Conduct of the State Bar of California and Business and Professions Code Sections 6157-6159.2.
Please chat with an attorney in your area to make sure you’re protecting your business.**
Benefit from working with a licensed attorney
While a lot of online service providers would love to make you think otherwise, most of them are not licensed attorneys.
So, then, who the heck are you paying to register your trademark when you use an online service?
Your guess is as good as mine.
The only way to ensure you benefit from hiring someone reputable and licensed to guide the way is to hire an attorney for trademark registration. Preferably one who specializes in that area.
Your attorney will conduct a comprehensive search
One of the first steps in registering a trademark is to do a thorough search to make sure there aren’t other businesses that already use the name or mark you want to register.
This is important because the results will allow your attorney to weigh in on your chances of registration success. And whether it’s worth your time—and the investment—to continue.
Conducting a comprehensive search isn’t the same as a clearance search with a quick look around Google or social media, either. It’s an in-depth process that covers federal, state, and common law and explores as many different avenues as possible so you can rest assured you’ve done your due diligence as a business owner.
Most online service providers don’t conduct searches, let alone thorough ones. They just… take your money and move on to the next customer.
This is a major problem (beyond the obvious) because failure to run a proper trademark search can mean you’re guilty of acting in “bad faith” and could actually cost you damages if you end up trying to register someone else’s mark.
Your attorney can respond to USPTO refusals
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is pretty particular about what does and doesn’t qualify for trademark registration.
If your application is met with a refusal, you or an attorney must file a response within 3 months, or your application will be abandoned if you haven’t paid to file a request for an extension.
And that would be a shame—and a waste of money—after you’ve come so far.
Most online services don’t include this in their pricing, so you could end up paying a lot more than you bargained for down the line if things take an unexpected turn.
Filing for trademark registration with an attorney provides peace of mind
The process of registering a trademark can be complicated, time-consuming, and filled with deadlines.
When you use an online service provider, you’re really choosing to tackle the journey on your own, which makes it easy to get overwhelmed and make costly mistakes that could jeopardize your whole application.
Hiring an attorney to help with trademark registration takes the stress out of the process and gives you total confidence that everything is being handled correctly.
And if anything does go wrong, you’ve got someone in your corner who can fight for your business.
Hiring an attorney to register your trademark will always be the clear choice to save you money, time, and headaches in the long run.
If you want to file for federal trademark registration in the United States, you can work with a licensed trademark attorney by booking a consultation with Nicole Cheri Oden Law.
