Q: How could I request a refund for the transaction that did not take place?
We filed a patent application through a lawyer. The lawyer said it is suitable for the name we applied for. you can get this name. He said and we made the application. Then, 9 months later, the officer in the trade mark told us that 2 items were canceled due to name similarity with another company. Only we trusted the lawyer and made the application. And the products in those two items are important to us. In other words, we will not be able to get the name right at this stage, can we demand the money we paid from the lawyer back?
A: The attorney should not have given unqualified assurance that the mark could be registered merely on the basis of an initial search. Applications to register trademarks are reviewed by a USPTO examining attorney about six months after submission, and in your case apparently the examining attorney refused the application based on prior existing registrations too similar to yours. You cannot recover the USPTO filing fee, but you would be justified in demanding the attorney refund his/her fees for improperly promising a favorable result, which is an ethical breach.
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