How Much Does a Trademark Cost

Are flat rates risky? If a company offers you a flat rate to get a Trademark – Well not even are – What are they putting on your back? What are they asking you to take on as risk? They usually will quote you a Fee to File, a Fee to File a Trademark Application. They ignore the search or if they offer one at all, it’s just kind of what we call a quick knockout search. They may try to upsell you on a better search. They may try to upsell you on assistance reviewing it. But again, they’re only going to quote you this number to file it. Then later in this process, you’ll have an examination.

Now, if you’re unclear about the Trademark Process, you can also review another video that I did on the E5 Trademark System which goes through the five steps and phases that every mark has to go through to get registered and then enforced.

Well, after you get into your Examination Phase, you’re going to see that there are responses that have to be filed because the Trademark Office will send rejections and objections in response to whatever you applied for. Now, these responses are often foreseeable (you can anticipate them if you do a good search upfront). Again, if you don’t get a good search upfront, you can’t possibly take those into account when you file for your application, which means that it’s going to be more difficult to overcome the rejections, so you’ll actually spend more money on the responses. 

So, you see with a Low-Cost Flat Rate Filing, they’re setting you up to spend a lot more money later when you respond. An Opposition Proceeding it’s kind of like a trial. 

Do they ever talk to you about this when they mentioned this low flat rate upfront? Well, if you don’t do your homework before you file your mark, you might end up in one of these Opposition Proceedings, and they are expensive, and they take place in Alexandria, Virginia at the Trademark Office. And then you have Registration and then you have to go enforce it to get anything done. So what they sell you as a “timeline-like” simple process is actually pretty darn complex isn’t it? So, let’s compare their promise to the reality. Again, their promise it’s kind of like a timeline going up. Think of it like a telephone pole if you will. I’ve just kind of flipped it on its side. I’m calling it Their Path. But filing for a Trademark Application is a lot more like a tree and in a sense growing a tree. And I like the analogy of a tree because just like trees are living and organic and always changing, well the world that your Trademark lives in and operates in is also organic and always changing. There are going to be companies that have unsimilar products in other geographic areas of the country that use maybe similar names or logos. 

Anyway, let’s go through what the actual process is kind of like. I think of what’s out there already is kind of like the soil that you’re going to plant your seed in. So, just like you would, you know, check the soil before planting a tree, you also want to check what’s out there before you plant your Trademark. An oak tree is not going to take root in a sandy beach right?

And after you file for your Trademark Application, then as your Trademark grows (as it grows for the process), you eventually get that examination that I referred to earlier. And when you do, you’re going to get rejections and objections. By the way, they’re different. We can go over the nuances later. And you have to respond to it. But there are a lot of ways that you can respond to these office actions that you get. And so, you have all these possibilities of how you can respond. And eventually, you can get your mark registered in multiple classes perhaps and apply it to multiple goods and services. But the strength of your mark (like a giant oak tree) depends on laying the foundation correctly. 

So, for them to be honest about what they’re charging, they would have to tell you that, “Well, this branch isn’t really an option. And you know what? That one’s not an option either. And oh by the way, this one’s kind of not going to be there.” And you know, all these other possibilities go away. And hmm… what you’re left with kind of looks like that telephone pole right? But your marks kind of – now just this little stumpy thing that doesn’t grow and have the power that you’re looking for earlier. 

So, when you hear or when you read that there’s a Flat-Rate Program for getting your Trademark, they’re talking about this one little path. And they’re in fact only talking about what is really the third step in a five-step process of that path because they’re just gonna skip steps one and two I guess. 

So, I hope that this has been informative for you. I invite your questions below. Don’t forget to subscribe, so you will be informed about more of these videos as they come up And I look forward to seeing you in the next one.