Trademark registration process is a niche area of law and hence the services of an attorney specialized in trademark law will be of great help for many situations. The services provided by such attorneys include filing of trademark applications, evaluation of a trademark search or trademark a product name, among many others.
Your choice of the trademark attorney will greatly impact the security of your trademark, smooth completion of the registration process, and protection of your intellectual property. Some helpful tips on how to choose the right trademark attorney are discussed below:
It is not a good idea to fix up a trademark attorney purely based on a lawyer referral service or an advertisement.
This is because you get to know only very little about the attorney, the charges paid by the attorney for such services will be levied from you, and most of such services do not take into consideration the attorney's abilities, qualifications or experience.
1. Make a list of prospective trademark attorneys by asking for referrals from your current attorney, accountant, banker or other business owners.
2. You can also check in your LinkedIn network or search state bar websites to select reputed attorneys. Ideally, you can prepare a list of 4 - 10 attorneys that accept clients for trademark legal services.
3. It is recommended that you research the shortlisted attorneys' experience directly at the US Trademark Office website. This is to make sure that the lawyer is doing enough work and is having a proper system to track the applications.
Trademark deadlines are generally spread out over many years and most trademark attorneys have special dockets to track the same.
After the research, boil down to two or three attorneys and personally meet and interview them.
Some of the points that you can discuss at the time of interviewing the attorneys, to assess their capabilities, are the following:
1. Whether there are other trademarks that may prevent you from registering yours?
2. Whether your trademark is suggestive enough to prevent descriptiveness rejection?
3. Ask the attorney you are interviewing as to what class he/she would recommend for your trademark after explaining in detail about your products or services.
4. Whether the attorney will be able to provide or arrange for services if you need to file for trademark registration internationally.
5. Find out if the attorney has malpractice insurance coverage.
* Take into consideration each lawyer's experience and familiarity with your industry. Since trademarks last as long as your business does, it is important to build a good relationship with your trademark lawyer to ensure continued support.
* Identify an attorney who can provide individual attention to your case, including trademark searching and filing.
* Make sure that the attorney you are deciding to work with is the one handling your trademark registration filing and that he/she is not using the services of a paralegal to run your searches and write up your applications.
* Ultimately, the best answer to the question how to choose the right trademark attorney is the recommendation of your friend or acquaintance.
This is because their recommendation will be based on their first hand experience with the attorney. However, make sure that you feel comfortable dealing with the chosen attorney.
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