Trademark Search & Registration
Creating, Researching, Filing Applications & Benefits
You wouldn’t operate on yourself… right? So why would you file your own trademark application?
While filing a trademark application may appear easy, it’s what happens after the mark is filed that can be problematic.
In the end, filing the mark yourself may end up costing you more money because you may have to hire a trademark professional to fix the application or possibly even re-file it because the mistake is not fixable.
If the application must be re-filed, you don’t get the government fees back and will have to pay new ones.
Let’s start by talking about what a trademark/brand name actually is…it can be a word or words, phrase or slogan, a symbol, a number or numbers, a logo design, distinctive modes of packaging or product designs or a combination of one of more of these things that can be used to distinguish your products or services from someone else’s.
Creating a new brand name is often more complicated than sitting around the table with a glass of wine with your friends on a Friday night.
The brand that you choose should be carefully considered, connect to the overall vision and reflect the brand strategy of the company.
Let’s imagine for a moment that we are assisting you to create a brand.
We start by meeting with you and conducting an in-depth discovery session to learn about you, your company and the products and services that you provide.
We dig down deep, ask you to reveal your secrets… this helps us to learn who you really are.
We then go away and begin the brand creation process by brainstorming names, conducting searches for creative options that best suit your product or service.
We meet again… present the list of names that we have created… sometimes you choose a name right away… other times, we go back to the drawing board to create more names… eventually we will create a name that fits you perfectly.
During the name creation process, we conduct some cursory Internet and trade-mark searches to ensure that we are not creating a mark that is already in use for similar goods and/or services.
Once a brand is chosen and prior to the design process, we will conduct a full trademark search, provide an analysis of the data to determine availability and registrability.
Trademark searching is best left to the professionals… it is an art and there are many issues that must be considered in order to determine whether a trademark is available or not.
Searching should be done early to prevent expensive design and production changes down the line.
We are specialists in this field, and encourage you to ask as many questions as you like. The more questions you ask will result in you having a better understanding of the process. After all, this is your brand we are talking about.
STAGES OF REGISTRATION
Let’s pretend that we filed your trademark application for you.
Below are the typical stages involved in obtaining a registration.
The timelines mentioned above are approximated and are dependent upon whether the application experiences slow downs during examination or is opposed by another party during advertisement.