For Miami-Dade businesses that are already open and selling.
Restaurants, hospitality, beauty and fashion brands, importers and exporters. One Florida attorney, one flat fee, from the search to the registration certificate.
I’m a Florida attorney based in St. Pete, and I went to law school at the University of Miami. I work with Miami businesses by email and phone. Trademarks are federal, so where you are doesn’t change the work.
Each one makes a rename harder.
Miami is where U.S. brands meet Latin America. That reach is the reason to protect the name, and the reason to plan past the U.S.
In 2023, $137 billion in trade moved through the Miami Customs District. Miami handles about one-third of all U.S. exports to Latin America and the Caribbean.
Miami-Dade had a record of more than 28 million visitors in 2024, who spent $22 billion. Tourism supports more than 209,000 jobs.
Trademarks are territorial: a U.S. registration doesn’t protect your mark in another country. A U.S. application or registration can be the base for one Madrid Protocol filing covering many countries.
Small Miami businesses have taken on a cruise line and a global brewer over their names.
In 2023, a Miami pizzeria that registered MIAMI SLICE in 2019 sued Carnival over a "Miami Slice" pizza kiosk on a ship sailing from PortMiami. Carnival countered that "Miami" describes a style of pizza. A city name in a brand is the first thing an opponent attacks.
Heineken’s subsidiary challenged Biscayne Bay Brewing’s Tropical Bay IPA, claiming rights in "tropical" for beer. Heineken dropped the complaint, signed a covenant not to sue and withdrew its opposition to the brewery’s application.
A South Beach restaurant sued a San Diego restaurant in Miami federal court, claiming the name and the menu copied its own. A name that travels on social media meets copycats in other states.
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 consulting on planning, growth, marketing, capital and government contracting for Miami-Dade and Monroe businesses.
Free mentoring for the life of your business, plus workshops and webinars.
The county’s official economic development organization: market research, international growth, capital and incentives.
Advocacy, education and events for the Greater Miami business community.
MDC’s entrepreneurship hub, including Scale Up programs built for businesses already operating, taught in English and Spanish.
A weekly Thursday Gathering for networking and learning in Miami’s startup scene.
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 Miami 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 across Miami-Dade and Broward. Trademarks nationwide under federal law; business contracts in Florida.
Maybe not. Under the doctrine of foreign equivalents, the USPTO translates foreign words in common use and can find them confusingly similar to the English version. EL SOL for clothing was held confusingly similar to SUN for footwear. A search has to check both languages. TMEP 1207.01(b)(vi) (opens in a new tab)
No. Trademarks are territorial, so each country needs its own filing. A U.S. application can be the base for a single Madrid Protocol filing that reaches many countries at once.
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 Miami businesses by email and phone.
$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)