Trademarks

A Brand Review a two step process.

First, your trademark is analyzed to determine whether it is capable of functioning as a trademark and whether it is capable of being registered in the U.S.

Second, a search is conducted to determine whether any existing trademarks are likely to prevent your trademark use. This legal analysis is based on a number of factors, such as the similarity between your trademark and the existing trademark, as well as the markets of your trademark and the existing trademark.

Based on our analysis, we will give you as strong a recommendation as we can regarding whether you can move forward with your trademark or whether you should consider a different trademark.

The further along your business is, the more expensive it is to rebrand. Pouring money into brand design and marketing only to have to abandon it for legal reasons is a waste of resources, time, and consumer good will. Origami Legal’s Brand Clearance services are designed to help you avoid having to rebrand for legal reasons, helping you build a trademark that you can build your business around.

No, Origami Legal will only apply to register a trademark if it has already performed a Brand Review for that trademark. In our exprience, applying to register a trademark without a Brand Clearance leads to clients unnecessarily wasting money on trademarks that have no chance of registration, which is a frustrating experience for you and us.

It depends on what type of Brand Clearance you order, but you should typically expect to receive your Brand Clearance Report within five business days. A general rule of thumb is that more expensive reports take longer because they are more involved.

Unfortunately, no law firm can guarantee results for their trademark clearance services, and Origami Legal is no exception. While we stand behind our Brand Clearance service, the reality is that, due to the nature of trademark law in the United States, even the most thorough of trademark searches may miss conflicting trademarks. Additionally, we cannot guarantee that a judge or USPTO trademark examiner will agree with our analysis regaring a brand or logo’s ability to function as a trademark or to be registered.

As with many things in life and in business, you could perform a trademark and search analysis on your own, but we’re confident you will get better results if we do it for you.

Additionally, and perhaps more importantly for those inclined to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty in the exciting world of trademark law, a DIY may leave you more exposed to damages if it turns out your brand or logo infringes someone elses trademark. Some courts will consider an opinion from a trademark attorney that your brand or logo does not infringe an existing trademark when deciding whether to make you pay damages to the other party. As far as we are aware, however, no courts give the same consideration to defendants who relied on their own search and analysis.

A trademark registration is a listing on a government registry that grants certain rights to the registration’s owner. Registries include the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s principle and supplemental register for the U.S. federal government, U.S. state registries, foreign government registries, and the World Intellectual Property Organization registry. Most commonly, U.S. based businesses and nonprofits register their trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, though there are times when it is appropriate to register a trademark abroad, with one or more U.S. states, or with the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Trademark registration is important for most businesses that currently or may eventually sell at anything other than a very limited, local market. Trademark registration grants exclusive use to a trademark at the national level as long as the registration remains valid, meaning that you can use the trademark and prevent others from using the trademark anywhere in the U.S. in a way that might confuse consumers.

Without a trademark registration, your right to use a brand or logo extends only to your current geographic market and a likely area of expansion. If someone else begins to use the brand or logo outside of those areas where you have unregistered trademark rights, they are free to do so, and they can even prevent you from using your brand name or logo near them. Registering your trademark as early as possible ensures that you will maximize your trademark rights and reduce the likelihood that someone else will imitate your branding, intentionally or otherwise.

Origami Legal’s fee for reviewing and applying to register your trademark for one class of goods or services starts at $1,050, which includes the application fee paid to the USPTO. Of that, $750 is attributable to the application itself and $300 is applicable to Origami Legal’s most basic Brand Review service (Origami Legal does not apply to register trademarks it has not reviewed).

Additional costs may apply, including an additional fee for each class of goods or services added to the application.

An application to register a trademark is the method by which your trademark is added to the trademark register of a particular government – most commonly the U.S. federal government. The end-goal of an application is to succesfully register a trademark and enjoy the benefits of registration, but registration is not guaranteed.

At a minimum, you should expect the entire process to take 6 months to a year, assuming everything goes smoothly.

Timelines vary based on whether or not you are already using the trademark with goods or services for sale, and whether the trademark office or anyone else challenges your application.

If things do not go smoothly, or you take a long time to begin to use the trademark with goods or services, the process may take several years.

While we are confident in the service we provide and strongly believe that hiring Origami Legal or another trademark law firm will increases your application’s chances of succeeding where it otherwise may fail, we cannot guarantee that any application will be succesful. The nature of trademark law in the United States means that it impossible to guarantee that there are no trademarks that will conflict with your trademark at the time the application is submitted, or that the trademark office’s examining attorneys will agree with Origami Legal’s analysis of your trademarks registerability.

We don’t recommend registering your trademark without the assistance of a professional. Many businesses succesfully navigate simple applications on their own – the problem is there is no way to know whether an application was a simple one until after the application process is complete. Hiring a trademark law firm to register your trademark increases the likelihood of your application’s success.

That said, if you are in a position where your branding budget is extremely limited, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office offers a number of resources meant to help businesses and individuals filing a trademark application on their own. Reviewing those materials in depth will increase your chance of succesfully applying for a trademark registration (or choosing a brand name or logo that is more likely to be registered).

Origami Legal’s brand monitoring service uses software to scan the USPTO database for applications that might infringe your brand name. The goal is to identify threatening applications as soon as possible to give you the widest range of cost effective options to prevent the application from succeeding and reduce trademark infringement.

First, if your brand is a valuable part of your business, it pays to prevent people from using your trademarks in ways that dilute your brand. Identifying these threatening trademarks before they are registered protects your brand from dilution in the most cost effective way possible.

Second, trademark owners have a legal duty to police their trademarks and prevent others from using their brand in a way that might confuse consumers. Failure to do so can lead to a loss of trademark rights. Origami Legal’s monitoring service is one way to police your trademark and protect your brand.

Origami Legal will review applications flagged by our software as potentially infringing your trademark. If we believe that the application is an issue that should be addressed, we will send you an alert regarding the application, as well as options for dealing with the infringing application and our recommendation.

No, unfortunately at this time brand names and other text-based trademarks are the only trademarks eligible for our Brand Monitoring services.

We cannot guarantee that the trademark monitoring service will catch every potentially infringing trademark application submitted.