Trademarks and Service marks, which are called generically simply marks, are utilized to identify the source of goods and services respectively. In this regard, the owner of such a mark desires for the public to recognize the mark so that the public will seek to purchase the goods or services of the owner of the mark. In short then, a mark generally becomes known in the public through the expenditure of large sums of advertising money by the trademark owner.
Since large sums of money will be expended on advertising, it is best to conduct a full trademark search. Failure to do so could result in another company, individual or group asserting a trademark or service mark infringement action against you and your organization or business. The cost to defend such actions is very expensive. Because of the foregoing, a trademark search is highly recommended.
Trademark searches however, cannot be adequately searched on the Internet. In this regard, the required database is much too large and expensive to maintain. A few free site, that provide limited searching at no charge include: www.uspto.gov, and www.saegis.com (you must register first-see www.compu-mark.com.).
Thomson and Thomson is perhaps the world leading trademark search firm. They will provide a full search of federal registrations, state registrations, business names in the yellow and white pages of the major cities, and common law names utilized by various businesses throughout the United States for about $380.00 per name per class. The report provided by such a search firm will provide you with a complete listing of names but will not provide you with an opinion as to whether the searched name is available for registration. You must make this determination yourself by examining the report or in the alternative hire the services of an intellectual property law attorney to review the report and provide you with an opinion of registerability.
Our firm will review the provided report and will opine whether the selected mark appears to be registerable. The charge for this service is a fixed fee of $320.00 and is limited to one name in one classification. The costs for having the report prepared by Thomson and Thomson is in addition to the above mentioned attorney fees. In total then, a search with an accompanying opinion letter is $700.00. In requesting service, it should be recognized that if the selected name does not appear to be registerable, then an additional search would be required. Each additional search and each additional opinion letter costs an additional $700.
Once a proposed mark appears to be registerable, our firm will prepare a trademark application with any accompanying drawings for a flat fee of $250.00. This fee does not include the trademark filing fee nor the cost for preparing any accompanying drawings. Such costs are in addition to the attorney fees and will be quoted separately. A ballpark number for such additional costs would be between about $400.00 and about $750.00.
Once a trademark application is filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, a government trademark attorney will be assigned to review the application to determine whether the proposed mark is registerable. If the trademark attorney makes a determination that the mark is not registerable, the attorney will issue an official action identifying the reason or reasons why the mark is not registerable.
In some situations, a response to the rejection may be filed to overcome the rejection of the mark. This document is called a Response or an Amendment. Preparing a Response or Amendment to an official action is not included in the charges for filing the trademark application. In this regard, additional charges between about $250.00 and $5000.00 may be necessary to gather evidence and prepare a responsive reply. Such additional work will be quoted and no additional work will be undertaken without prior client approval. The client prior to any work being performed must advance fees and costs for undertaking such additional work. The entire registration process can take between 6 months and 18 months depending upon whether any official actions are generated by the USPTO. Our firm will undertake no work without the client signing a written retainer agreement, which outlines the above.
If we can be of further service, please contact us by e-mail.
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