For Jacksonville businesses that are already open and selling.
Restaurants, breweries, healthcare practices, logistics and service companies with a name customers know. One Florida attorney, one flat fee, from the search to the registration certificate.
I’m a Florida attorney based in St. Pete, working with businesses across Northeast Florida by email and phone. Trademarks are federal, so where you are doesn’t change the work.
Each one makes a rename harder.
A business that starts on the First Coast rarely stays there. The city’s own economy is built on shipping things and serving customers well beyond Duval County.
JAXPORT supported 26,282 jobs and $31.1 billion in economic output in 2018. Transportation and warehousing make up 10% of local employment. Products named here end up in other states fast.
About 11% of Jacksonville workers are in finance and insurance, more than Tampa, Orlando or Miami. Healthcare employs more than 50,000 people. Practices, advisors and service firms here compete on name and reputation.
Visit Jacksonville counts more than 20 local breweries on the Jax Ale Trail. A federal registration covers the whole country, so a name that works on one local tap list can still conflict with a brewery three states away.
Every one of these turned on a word the business thought was safely its own.
In 2019, two local film festivals fought over "Jax." One held a federal registration; the other’s application was reportedly refused as too similar and it reportedly asked the USPTO to cancel the first one’s. A trademark attorney quoted in the story noted that "Jax" alone is a geographic term no one business can own.
In 2018 the Jaguars applied to register SACKSONVILLE. A former Jaguars linebacker opposed the application, saying he had used the term on Instagram and merchandise since 2015. Using a name first can matter as much as filing first.
Firehouse Subs, founded in Jacksonville, sued a Myrtle Beach bar and grill over "Firehouse." In 2011 a jury found no infringement and the court cancelled the FIREHOUSE word mark. The fraud verdict was vacated in 2012 and the parties settled on undisclosed terms. How an application is filed matters years later.
Florida keeps three separate records, and none of them is a federal trademark.
Filing with the Florida Division of Corporations creates the company. It doesn’t check whether anyone else already uses the name as a brand.
Registering a d/b/a lets you do business under another name in Florida. It gives you no exclusive right to that name.
Florida registers marks at the state level, and that protection stops at the state line. A federal registration covers all fifty states from one filing.
Free and low-cost help for the parts of your business that aren’t trademarks.
Free one-on-one business consulting and training across 18 Northeast Florida counties, with a downtown office at 112 W. Adams St.
Free, confidential mentoring from experienced volunteers for new and existing businesses.
More than 3,000 Northeast Florida member businesses, with councils, mentoring and a Beaches Division.
Mentoring, education and networking for women business owners, run by JAX Chamber.
The City of Jacksonville’s Small and Emerging Business program opens city bidding opportunities to qualifying local businesses.
Economic development for the seven-county region of about 1.9 million people.
One mark is $2,600 flat, plus the $350 USPTO fee per class. Pay once, or in two or three payments. Questions by email are free.
Most Jacksonville businesses own more than one mark: the name, the logo, a product line, a location brand. The fee is set by how many marks you protect now. See everything the fee covers.
Your business name, or the one product everyone knows you for.
Or three payments of $950. Plus the $350 USPTO fee per class.
Name plus logo, or name plus tagline.
Or three payments of $1,735. Plus the $350 USPTO fee per class.
A brand with a few core offers, each with a name of its own.
Or three payments of $2,520. Plus the $350 USPTO fee per class.
A suite of products, programs or locations, protected together.
Or three payments of $3,285. Plus the $350 USPTO fee per class.
The whole brand, filed at once.
Or three payments of $4,050. Plus the $350 USPTO fee per class.
Every application Citrus Legal has filed has been approved. Zero refusals so far.
If my written opinion rates your mark low risk and the examiner refuses it anyway, I prepare and file a new application for a new mark at no attorney fee. You pay only the USPTO filing fee.
If the first search comes back high risk, I search one new name at no charge, so you are never stuck paying to find out a name was never available.
Every mark is one flat fee, agreed in writing before any work starts. Procedural Office Actions are included. Nothing arrives as a surprise invoice.
Never a paralegal, never a chatbot. I am Gabrielle Maria Crawford, Esq., founder of Citrus Legal. I run your search myself, write the opinion myself, and handle your filing myself.
Admitted to The Florida Bar. Juris Doctor, University of Miami School of Law. Based in St. Pete. I work with businesses from Jacksonville and the beaches to St. Augustine and Ponte Vedra. Trademarks nationwide under federal law; business contracts in Florida.
You can register a name that includes Jax, but the word Jax on its own describes a place, so it won’t be what protects you. The rest of the name has to do that work. The search shows how crowded your combination is.
Federal trademarks are handled through the USPTO, so you don’t need an attorney in your city. I’m a Florida attorney based in St. Pete and work with Jacksonville businesses by email and phone.
Often, yes. Serving travelers, selling online or shipping across state lines can count as use in commerce. Whether your business qualifies depends on the facts, and I check that before we file.
$2,600 flat for one mark at Citrus Legal: the search, the written opinion, the application and procedural Office Actions through registration. Plus the USPTO’s $350 fee per class. Two marks are $4,950 and three are $7,300.
An LLC registers your company with the State of Florida. It doesn’t give you rights in the name as a brand. A federal trademark registration does, nationwide.
Questions by email are always free. If you want to talk through your situation live, you can book a paid 30-minute consultation.
Start here, or email us first. Either one gets you a straight answer about what to do next.
Email questions are free. Want to talk it through? Book a paid 30-minute consultation. (opens in a new tab)