I was recently asked this question:
Question: Is it worth hiring an attorney to do a trademark registration, or should I save money and try to do it myself?
There are a lot of legal tasks you might want to do yourself to save money, but this is not one of them.
Trademark registration is not a simple process like copyright registration. Copyright registration can often be done without an attorney.
You should have an attorney do trademark filings because there are many potential pitfalls and your trademark application is reviewed by a trademark examiner. If the trademark examiner identifies problems in your trademark application, the application will be rejected unless you fix those problems. Using a trademark attorney may actually save you money (not to mention a lot of time) because doing it right the first time is normally cheaper than fixing a trademark registration application that is done wrong.
After business owners meet with our trademark attorneys, about 10% of them decide not to do a trademark registration. For example, one of our clients wanted to trademark a generic term, which we explained would not be permitted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In this situation, our advice saved the business owner
the trademark registration filing fee and
time they would have spent trying to file the trademark application themselves.
They were able to quickly move on, identifying a new brand name they could register as a trademark.
We have attorneys very experienced in trademark law. One of them would be happy to meet for a brief meeting to analyze your situation and explain your options. Each situation has its own complexities and there are aspects to discuss to understand your situation, advise you accurately, and give you a quote for the specific work you need. There is typically no charge for this initial consultation. If you decide to register a trademark, attorney’s fees for trademark registration usually start at about $1,000 (this covers one class and one mark).