Q: What are the benefits of hiring an attorney to help me register a trademark? Is it simple to do on your own?
A: It is easy to prepare the actual trademark application documents. Preparing the documents accounts for 10% of the work involved in securing a good trademark. A trademark attorney can search for potentially conflicting trademarks to determine if your potential trademark is likely to be registered, valid, and enforceable. Often people attempt to register trademarks that are either not enforceable against competitors because of prior use or they attempt to register trademarks are not being properly used, and therefore subject to being cancelled. Another important service a trademark attorney can perform is prepare the description of goods and services to maximize your legal rights. An attorney can also respond to the government's legal arguments. After you file a trademark application, a government trademark examining attorney will scrutinize the application and may make legal arguments why the the trademark should not be registered. A trademark attorney can prepare an application that is less likely to face objections and can respond to the government attorney's legal arguments. People who file their own trademark applications or hire a document preparation service may have their trademarks rejected and have to start the process over again a year later, including paying a second application fee.
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