Protect it
before
someone else
claims it.
Your LLC doesn’t guarantee your name. Only a trademark does. Flat-fee trademark attorney in St. Pete, Florida. Founders nationwide.
What I do.
Hover over a service to see what it coversTap a service to see what it covers
A full search of federal trademark records, all fifty states’ records and real-world use.
A written opinion telling you whether the name is worth building on.
Drafted to survive examination, with the owner name, description of goods, class, and filing basis all chosen deliberately.
Procedural responses: the disclaimers, amendments, and clarifications the examiner asks for. Substantive ones too, including likelihood of confusion and descriptiveness refusals.
A watch over new filings, domains, and handles.
Renewal and maintenance deadlines tracked.
Enforcement letters sent when someone gets close.
The terms between you and the clients who hire you.
Drafted from scratch or reviewed line by lineThe terms for the independent contractors you bring on to do the work.
Drafted from scratch or reviewed line by lineWho gets to use what you made, and on what terms.
Drafted from scratch or reviewed line by lineWho owns what when you build something with someone else.
Drafted from scratch or reviewed line by lineWhat stays confidential, and for how long.
Drafted from scratch or reviewed line by line
Citrus Legal is a flat-fee trademark law firm in St. Pete, Florida, working with founders nationwide, and with local founders across Tampa Bay and Florida on their everyday business needs.
Your business name is the one asset that gets more valuable the longer you hold it, and the one most founders leave unprotected the longest. A federal trademark turns the name you use into the name you own. One attorney, flat fees, and a process you can see the end of from the beginning.
- Admitted to The Florida Bar
- J.D., University of Miami School of Law
- Trademarks nationwide
- Contracts in Florida
- Flat fees quoted before any work
"The registration process was overwhelming to do on my own. Gabrielle answered my questions and made the whole thing effortless. I made a good call hiring an attorney."
Registration is not paperwork.
This is the goal: the ®.
It means the United States Patent and Trademark Office has registered the name to you, and nobody else in your lane gets to use it.
Without a registration, your name is available to anyone who wants it. Someone else can file it first, and then the business you built becomes the business you have to defend, or rename.
A federal trademark closes that door. It gives you nationwide rights, the ability to stop copycats, and something a bank, a buyer, or a partner can put a value on. You made your name mean something. Owning it is the part that keeps it yours.
Most founders wait because the process sounds opaque and the cost sounds unknowable. Both of those are fixable. You will know the fee before anything is filed, you will know what the search found before we commit to a name, and you will never be asked to interpret a government notice on your own.
Five things a registration does that nothing else does.
- 01
Nationwide rights, not local habit.
Using a name builds rights only where you can prove you have traded. A federal registration puts your claim on record across every state, including the ones you have not reached yet.
- 02
You never pay for a rebrand you did not choose.
A forced rebrand costs more than new packaging. It costs the recognition you spent years earning, the search traffic, the referrals, and every client who knew you by the old name.
- 03
Copycats become a letter, not a lawsuit.
With a registration, most infringement ends at a cease-and-desist letter or a platform takedown. Without one, the same problem turns into an argument about who was there first, and that argument is expensive.
- 04
It turns a name into an asset you can license or sell.
A registered mark is property. It can be licensed to a collaborator, carried into a partnership, or valued in a sale. An unregistered name is a habit, and habits do not appear on a balance sheet.
- 05
You stop carrying it around.
The quiet cost of not filing is attention: the tab you keep open, the competitor account you keep checking, the decision you keep moving to next quarter. Handled once, properly, it stops taking up room.
Five phases. You always know which one you are in.
Nothing here happens without your sign-off, and nothing arrives as a surprise invoice.
- Phase 01
Analysis
We start with whether the name can be owned at all. Some marks are strong and register easily; others are descriptive, generic, or too close to something already on the register. Finding that out now is cheaper than hearing it from an examiner later.
- Phase 02
Research and clearance
A comprehensive search across federal, state, and common-law sources, read the way the USPTO reads it: sight, sound, and meaning, not exact spelling. You get a written opinion on the risk before a dollar goes toward a filing.
- Phase 03
Preparation and filing
Owner name, class, description of goods and services, filing basis, specimen. Each of these decides how much protection you actually end up with, and several of them cannot be corrected after the fact. This is the part a form cannot do for you.
- Phase 04
Examination and approval
The USPTO moves slowly and writes in its own language. I track your file, respond to procedural Office Actions, and handle every communication with the examiner. You get updates in plain English and no portal to log into.
- Phase 05 · Registered
Ongoing protection
Registration is the start of ownership, not the end of the work. Watch service over new filings and handles, maintenance deadlines tracked, and enforcement letters sent when someone gets close enough to matter.
The price, before anything starts.
One flat fee for the legal work, agreed in writing. The government filing fee is separate and goes straight to the USPTO.
People whobuilt itthemselves.
Founders who left the 9-to-5
You traded a salary for something with your name on it. Protecting the name is what makes the trade permanent.
Creators and personal brands
Your handle, your show, your product line. When the audience is the asset, the name they know you by is the thing to protect first.
Coaches and consultants
Frameworks, programs, and signature methods get copied quickly. A registered mark is what makes yours yours.
Founders working from anywhere
Practice before the USPTO is federal. Where you live matters less than where your customers are, and I file for clients in every state.
Building software or an app? See how the name check works for SaaS.
Find the stage your brand is in.
Every stage is a flat fee, agreed in writing before anything starts. USPTO filing fees are paid to the government and are always separate.
Questions first? Read the FAQs.
Full trademark search and a written opinion letter. No filing yet.
Comprehensive search, opinion letter, and a one-class federal application.
Everything in Sprout, plus a second class, specimen review and every procedural Office Action response.
For difficult names that need extra security. Everything in Grove, plus every substantive Office Action response.
Portfolio counsel: multiple marks, watch service, renewals, and enforcement letters. Plus one contract review a month, up to 5 pages, and correspondence and a phone call with the attorney.
The founder’s trademark checklist.
Eight pages, no legalese: how to tell whether your name is strong enough to register, the four mistakes that sink self-filed applications, what a clearance search should actually cover, and the deadlines that come after registration.
Written for people who are running a business, not studying for the bar. One email a month after that, unsubscribe whenever.
You left the 9-to-5to own something.Let’s make sureyou actually do.
Start with a $650 clearance search and a written opinion, or book a free 15-minute call and we will work out the right first step together. Nothing automated, no sales call.