Startups · Not open yet
Own the name before you spend a dollar on it.
Signage, packaging, the domain, the launch. All of it is built on a name. Find out it’s yours first, then reserve it with the USPTO before you open, so nobody files it out from under you while you’re getting ready.
Already selling? Go to the main door.
Where to start
Two doors. Both end with the name being yours.
You do not need to be open to file. An intent-to-use application holds your place in line at the USPTO from the day it is filed. Most startups should file now and prove use later.
Reserve one mark.
$950 x 3 paymentsOr $2,600 once. The full search and written opinion, then the intent-to-use application the moment you say go. Procedural Office Actions included. Plus the $350 USPTO fee per class, paid when we file.
- Search first. If the name is high risk, I search a second one free.
- Your filing date is your place in line. Launch whenever you’re ready.
- Payments 30 days apart. The search starts on the first one.
Clear the name first.
$650A comprehensive federal, state and common-law search of one name, a written opinion on the risk, and a call to walk through it. Nothing is filed. If you retain me to file within 14 days, the $650 counts in full toward the mark.
- Right if the name is not locked yet, or a co-founder still needs convincing.
- Opinion letter in under two weeks.
- One courtesy search of a new name if the first comes back high risk.
Why not wait until you’re open?
Because someone else can file first. The USPTO works on filing date, not on who had the idea or printed the shirts. A name you have been building toward for a year can be gone in an afternoon.
Why not file it yourself for $350?
Attorney-filed applications register more often than self-filed ones, 82% to 60% in the University of North Carolina study. The expensive part is not the filing fee. It is the rebrand after a refusal, or the letter from someone who filed before you.
What if the name turns out to be taken?
Then you find out now, before the logo, the packaging and the launch, for $650 instead of a rebrand. If the search comes back high risk, I search your next name free.
Have these ready before you file.
The exact words you want to own. What you sell, or plan to sell, in plain words. Who will own the mark: your LLC or you. The state your company was formed in. That is everything the application needs from you to start.
You can file before you open.
An intent-to-use application reserves the name from the day it is filed. You prove use later, once you are selling, with a photo of the product label or a screenshot of the service. Your filing date is your place in line nationwide.
File the name before the logo.
The word mark protects the name in any font, color or design. Logos change in the first year; names usually don't. Most startups file the name first and add the logo once the design is final.
Take 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, and what to do before you print anything.