Start here
The Zest

How to Trademark a Name: The Steps, in Order

Written by

To trademark a name in the US, you file an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, a government attorney examines it, the public gets a chance to object, and if nothing stops it, the name registers. That's the whole arc. The work is in the decisions you make before you file, because most of them can't be undone afterward.

Here's the process in order, with links to longer pieces on the steps that deserve their own article.

Step 1: Find out whether the name can be registered at all

Two questions come before anything else.

The first is whether someone else already has rights in something similar. The USPTO will refuse a name that's likely to be confused with a mark that's already registered or applied for. The names don't have to be identical. Similar sound, look or meaning can be enough when the goods or services are related. What a real search covers, and what it can't tell you, is in the article on searching before you file.

The second is whether the name is the kind of thing trademark law protects. A name that only describes what you sell is generally refused, and the generic name for a product can't be registered at all. Names that are invented, or that have nothing to do with the product, are on much firmer ground.

If either answer is bad, the time to learn that is before you've paid to apply.

Step 2: Decide exactly what you're filing

A trademark application isn't just a name in a box. It locks in four things.

Who owns the mark. The applicant has to be the person or company that actually owns the name. That might be you, or it might be your LLC.

What form the mark takes. You can apply for the words alone, in what the USPTO calls standard characters, with no claim to any particular font, size or color. Or you can apply for a specific stylized version or logo. They're separate applications.

Which goods or services it covers. A registration doesn't cover a name in the abstract. It covers the name for the goods and services you list, and those are sorted into 45 international classes, 34 for goods and 11 for services. The filing fee is charged per class. How to write this list, and how it can go wrong, is covered in the article on the goods and services description.

Your filing basis. If you're already selling under the name, you file based on use in commerce. You give your dates of first use and a specimen, which is real-world evidence of the name in use. What qualifies is explained in the article on specimens. If you haven't launched yet, you can file based on a bona fide intention to use the name. That holds your place in line, but you'll have to prove use later, before the name can register.

Step 3: File the application

New applications are filed online through the USPTO's Trademark Center. You need a USPTO.gov account, and the person filing has to verify their identity first.

The base filing fee is $350 per class of goods or services. Surcharges can apply on top of that, for example if you write your own description of goods and services in the free-form text box instead of choosing from the USPTO's pre-approved list. The full breakdown is in What a Trademark Actually Costs.

On who can file: if you're domiciled in the United States, you're allowed to file on your own. The USPTO doesn't require you to have an attorney, though it encourages it. If you're domiciled outside the US, you must be represented by an attorney licensed in the US.

Filing gets you a serial number and a filing date. It doesn't get you a registration, and it doesn't let you use the ® symbol. That comes only at the end.

Step 4: Get through examination

After filing, the application waits in line and is then assigned to a USPTO examining attorney, who reviews it against the legal requirements, including whether it conflicts with an earlier mark.

If the examining attorney finds a problem, they issue an office action, which is a letter explaining what's wrong. Some problems are small, like wording that needs to be tightened. Some are substantive, like a refusal based on a conflicting registration. You generally have three months from the date the office action issues to respond, and you can request one three-month extension for a fee. If you don't respond in time, the application is abandoned.

If the examining attorney approves the application, the mark is published in the USPTO's Trademark Official Gazette. That starts a 30-day window in which anyone who believes they'd be harmed by the registration can oppose it or ask for more time to do so.

Step 5: Registration, or one more step if you filed before launch

What happens after publication depends on your filing basis.

If you filed based on use, and nobody opposes, the USPTO issues the registration.

If you filed based on intent to use, the USPTO issues a notice of allowance instead. From that date you have six months to file a statement of use, showing the name is now in use with a specimen, or to request a six-month extension. Extensions cost a fee each and they run out. Under the statute, the outer limit works out to 36 months from the notice of allowance. If you never show use, the application is abandoned and nothing registers.

As for how long all this takes, the USPTO reports about 4.3 months, on average, before an examiner first acts on an application, and about 10.4 months, on average, from filing to a registration or an abandoned application (USPTO data as of October 1, 2026). It can be longer if there are office actions, an opposition or an intent-to-use filing. Each stage and what affects it is covered in How Long Does a Trademark Take?.

Step 6: Keep it alive

Registration isn't the last filing. To keep a registration, you have to file a declaration that the mark is still in use between the fifth and sixth year after registration, and a declaration plus a renewal between the ninth and tenth year, then every ten years after that. There's a six-month grace period after each deadline, for an added fee. Miss it and the registration is canceled or expires.

The USPTO also doesn't enforce your rights for you. Once the name is registered, watching for conflicting uses is the owner's job.

One last thing, and it's worth knowing before you start: the application is hard to change once it's in. You can narrow or clarify your list of goods and services, but you can't expand it. And you can't change the mark itself in a way that materially alters it. In practice, the fix for those problems is a new application and a new fee. That's why the first two steps carry most of the weight.

If you'd rather walk through these steps with your own name in mind, the services page shows how the search and filing packages work, and the FAQs page answers most of what comes up before a first call.

Book a free 15-minute discovery call with the attorney (opens in a new tab)

(No legal advice is given on the discovery call. It's a chance to tell me what you're building and hear how the process works.)

Sources

This article is general information, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Start here