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Why PatentNTrademark
If your trademark is owned by a company or individual located outside the United States, skip to “Experience Matters” below as you are required to hire a U.S.-licensed attorney and file yourself.
It is difficult to register a U.S. trademark
Filing an application is relatively easy. However, the odds of successfully registering a trademark are stacked against you if you are not an experienced trademark attorney. Every single line and checkbox on the trademark application form is loaded with legal significance.
Once a trademark application is filed, very little can be amended and the USPTO doesn’t offer refunds. Applying for a trademark will be an expensive, slow, and unforgiving process if you try to do it yourself without legal counsel.
After reviewing over 5 million trademark applications, a study in the Stanford Technology Law Review found the following:
- Trademark applicants represented by attorneys are 50% more likely to get through the registration process than those who do it alone.
- On average 43% of applications filed by individuals ultimately registered while those that used an experienced trademark attorney had a success rate of 60%
- Applicants issued a rejection by the Trademark Office saw their chances of success increase to 68% when they employed the services of experienced trademark attorneys.
The trademark process is far more complex than it may initially appear. Non-lawyer filing services like LegalZoom make it seem like submitting a trademark application is as simple as filing for a business license. But while filing for a business license entails you giving the government money and the government giving you your license, a trademark application is subject to a comprehensive legal review before a registration may be issued.
The trademark application failure rate is high because trademark law is complex. The Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure is literally thousands of pages of case law and statutes that every trademark application must comply with before it can be registered.
Protecting your privacy
In the recent past it was easy to file trademark applications and other documents at the trademark office with no more than an email address. However, this has dramatically changed in an attempt to cut down on fraud. It is now mandatory to have your identity verified before you can file anything with the USPTO.
Online verification for the USPTO is performed by a third-party private company called ID.me, which collects facial biometric data and voiceprint data. ID.me will require photos of your government IDs, your social security number, and will perform a soft credit report pull to verify your identity. This is a massive amount of sensitive data to turn over to a third-party private company just to file a trademark application. Hopefully, ID.me never gets hacked because you can’t change your biometric data like you can a stolen credit card number.
If you hire an attorney to file your trademark documents, you can skip ID.me and the risk to your privacy that represents, as your attorney files on your behalf.
Experience Matters
Collectively, PatentNTrademark attorneys have worked on over 6,000 U.S. trademarks. Here are a few we registered in 2022. From clearing brands and securing registrations, to addressing refusals, and dealing with trademark infringers, it is rare to come across a situation that we have not seen before. We have negotiated favourable settlements with some of the largest brands in the U.S, including Starbucks, the Empire State Building, Major League Baseball, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and the Wharton School of Business. Our clients span the globe and represent a wide variety of businesses – from Amazon sellers, clothing designers, restaurants, professional service providers, and everything in between. The vast majority of clients have had a good experience and have written positive reviews of their experience.
Register your trademarks.
Stress free.
Trademark applicants represented by attorneys are 50% more likely to successfully register than those who do it alone.