Clear the name before the doors open.
A class schedule can change. A name is harder to swap once it's on the front window, the booking app, the merch and every review. Fashion, beauty and wellness brands are my favorite work.
The clock The USPTO takes about 4 months just to first look at a new application. Your filing date holds your place in line.
Seed is a clearance search and a written opinion from the attorney, in under two weeks. Not sure which package fits? Email us and we’ll point you to the right one. Want advice on your specific situation? Book a paid consultation. (opens in a new tab)
Your name gets checked whether you check it or not.
The trademark office, the marketplaces and the social platforms each have their own process for deciding who a name belongs to. Most of them start by asking for a registration number.
You can't own the workout.
In 2015 a federal appeals court held that Bikram's 26-pose yoga sequence isn't protected by copyright, because it's a system. What you can own is the brand name your classes run under.Ninth Circuit opinion (opens in a new tab)
Amazon wants a trademark first.
To join Brand Registry, Amazon asks for an active registration or a pending application, plus your brand name on a logo fixed to the product or its packaging. Brand Registry is how you report copycats and protect your listings.Amazon Brand Registry (opens in a new tab)
Instagram asks for a registration number.
Instagram's trademark report form asks where the mark is registered and for the registration number. Meta's Brand Rights Protection tool is open to businesses with a registered trademark.Instagram's form (opens in a new tab) · Brand Rights Protection (opens in a new tab)
TikTok Shop asks for the certificate.
To take down copycat listings, videos or LIVEs, TikTok Shop's IP Protection Center has you register your IP first. For a U.S. trademark, the document it asks for is the USPTO registration certificate.TikTok Shop (opens in a new tab)
Naming fights reach brands of every size.
Two from fitness. Both are about what happens when a brand name becomes the everyday word for the workout.
What happened
- Pilates. In 2000 a federal court in New York ruled that "Pilates" is the generic name of an exercise method, for both classes and equipment, and ordered two Pilates registrations cancelled. Anyone can teach Pilates by that name today.The opinion (opens in a new tab)
- SPINNING. In 2021 Peloton asked the trademark office to cancel the SPINNING and SPIN registrations, arguing the words had become generic for the bikes and the classes. The owner, Mad Dogg Athletics, called the petition meritless. Peloton withdrew its SPINNING petition in October 2023, before any ruling.TTAB record (opens in a new tab) · Venable (opens in a new tab)
What it means for your name
- Check the name before you sign the lease or order the sign. A search costs less than a new storefront.
- A rename means new signage, the booking app and domain, your merch, and the reviews tied to your old name.
- File early. Once a mark registers, your nationwide rights date back to the day you filed, for what you listed in the application. That doesn't beat anyone who used or filed for the name before you.
- Use your brand name as a brand, not as the word for the workout. That's how it stays yours.
One attorney, start to finish.
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 take every call myself.
Admitted to The Florida Bar. Juris Doctor, University of Miami School of Law. Trademarks nationwide under federal law; business contracts in Florida. Based in St. Pete.
Why choose Citrus?
Because the attorney you talk to is the attorney doing the work, on every email, every call and every filing. Yes, I use AI. It’s a tool that helps me work faster, and it never makes the call on your name. I do.
Some low-cost services don’t name the attorney who files for you, and you may never speak to one. Big firms come with big names and hourly bills. With Citrus, you get the personal touch: one attorney who knows your file, a flat fee agreed in writing before any work starts, and real, honest feedback on your name, even when it isn’t what you hoped to hear.
Classes and coaching: Class 41. Supplements: Class 5.
A trademark covers a name for specific goods or services, sorted into numbered classes. Wellness brands often sell both services and products. One application can cover several classes, but the USPTO charges a fee for each class.
Classes, training and coaching.
Fitness classes, personal training, health club services, coaching and workshops.
Massage, nutrition and spa services.
Massage, dietary and nutritional advice, health spa services and health counseling.
Supplements.
Dietary supplements. Selling your own app, apparel or online store under the name can add Class 9, 25 or 35.
- Filing fee
- $350 per class is the USPTO’s base application fee. Surcharges, per class: $100 if required information is missing, $200 for writing your own description instead of using the USPTO’s list, and $200 for every 1,000 characters past the first 1,000.USPTO fee schedule, checked October 2026.
- First response
- About 4.3 months, on average, before an examiner first acts on an application.USPTO, data as of October 1, 2026.
- Start to finish
- About 10.4 months, on average, from filing to a registration or an abandoned application.USPTO, data as of October 1, 2026.
Six things that catch wellness brands off guard.
Wellness brands grow in their own ways: teacher trainings, second locations, franchises, supplements and retreats. Each one changes what your name needs.
Certify your teachers.
If you run a teacher training, a certification mark lets your graduates show they meet your standard while you keep control of it. The owner sets the standard and others use the mark. Yoga Alliance's RYT is a registered certification mark.USPTO on certification marks (opens in a new tab)
Franchising puts it in writing.
Before you sell a franchise, the FTC's rule makes you say in your disclosure document whether your main trademark is federally registered. If it isn't, you have to warn buyers that they may have to change marks at their own expense.The FTC rule (opens in a new tab)
A supplement's name can be a health claim.
The FDA counts a product's name when deciding whether it makes a disease claim. Its own examples are CarpalHealth and CircuCure. Supplements can describe how they support the body, with a disclaimer, but can't claim to treat or cure.FDA guidance (opens in a new tab)
Class names get refused.
The trademark office refused TABATA BOOTCAMP as generic or descriptive. It ended up on the Supplemental Register, the weaker one, with TABATA disclaimed. Name the brand, then name the class.The decision (opens in a new tab)
Retreats and lodging.
A retreat built around classes usually fits Class 41, which covers fitness classes and training. If you offer the lodging or meals as their own service, that's Class 43.Nice Class 43 (opens in a new tab)
Local studio, national name.
Using your name in your town gives you rights mostly where you operate. A federal registration covers the whole country from your filing date, which matters the day you open a second location or start selling online.
One attorney, one clear process.
You don’t need to know trademark law to protect your brand. You need someone who does it every day and tells you the truth about your name before you spend money on it. Here is what that looks like at Citrus Legal.
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Step 01
Search
A clearance search for your name, so you know who else is out there before you commit to it.
Want only this step? Take me to Seed.
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Step 02
Clearance opinion
A plain-English read on how strong your name is and how risky it is to use and register, before you commit.
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Step 03
Filing
Your application prepared and filed with the USPTO, with the owner, class, description and filing basis chosen deliberately. Grove and Harvest add specimen review.
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Step 04
Prosecution
Tracking your application and answering the examiner. Grove covers every procedural Office Action. Harvest also covers refusals, like likelihood of confusion or descriptiveness.
"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."
Six decisions to make before a wellness brand files.
Wellness names travel from the studio to merch, apps, retreats and teacher trainings. These are the choices that decide how far the registration reaches.
- 01
Is the name ownable at all?
Words like balance, flow, restore, align and glow are used by thousands of studios. A crowded word gives you narrow protection at best. Pilates is a generic term, so the distinctive part of the name has to do the work.
Read: Why wellness words are weak trademarks - 02
Services now, products later.
Classes and studios are Class 41. Spa and wellness clinic services are Class 44, supplements Class 5, apparel Class 25 and a workout app Class 9. Filing for what you will genuinely offer in the next few years saves a second search later.
Read: When a wellness brand adds products - 03
Your name or the studio name.
A brand built on your own name is tied to you. A studio name can be sold, licensed or handed to a partner. If you may ever sell the business or bring in investors, that choice matters now.
Read: Trademarking your own name as a fitness brand - 04
Methods, certifications and instructors.
If other instructors will teach your method or be certified in it, that is a license or a certification mark. Without written terms and quality control, every outside use weakens the name.
Read: Method and certification names - 05
A second location or a franchise.
A registration gives you nationwide priority from your filing date, which is what makes a second location or a franchise possible without a rename. Franchise buyers and their lawyers will ask for it.
Read: Second locations and franchising - 06
Retreats, events and run clubs.
An annual retreat, a challenge or a community run club can grow into its own brand. Decide whether it lives under the studio name or gets one of its own before the first sign-ups.
Read: Naming a retreat or event
The ones wellness founders ask most.
Fitness classes, personal training and coaching are Class 41. Massage, nutrition advice and spa services are Class 44. If you sell supplements, apparel or an app under the same name, those are separate classes.
You can trademark the brand name your classes run under. Copyright won't protect the workout itself, and a name that becomes the everyday word for the workout can lose protection, the way Pilates did.
Often, yes, if the name points to you and you're the one using it. Read your agreement with the studio first, in case it says who owns class names created there.
Before you open the next one. Once you're registered, your nationwide rights date back to your filing date, so a studio that opens later with the same name can't build rights over yours. It doesn't beat anyone who used the name before you.
Sometimes. A name that reads mainly as a last name usually can't be registered until it's known as your brand. A full name, or a name paired with another word, can work, and a living person's name needs that person's written consent.
Supplements are Class 5, a different class from your studio's services, so they need their own coverage. If you plan to sell on Amazon, Brand Registry asks for a registration or a pending application first.
Yes. An intent-to-use application lets you file before you open. You prove use later, once classes are running, and your filing date still holds your place in line.
Entertainment and education, like a podcast or a channel, is Class 41. Downloadable recordings can add Class 9.
Yes, with a certification mark. You set the standard, your graduates use the mark, and you don't use it on your own classes.
It isn't required, but your disclosure document has to say whether your main trademark is registered, and an unregistered mark comes with a warning to buyers.
You can use the words, but you can’t own them. A federal court held in 2000 that Pilates is a generic name for the exercise method, and yoga is generic too. The distinctive part of the name has to carry it, and the generic word gets disclaimed. Read more: Pilates is generic. Your studio name does not have to be
Wellness leans on the same few words, so the register is crowded. Crowded words get narrow protection, and names that describe the service, like Calm Yoga, are refused as descriptive. Read more: Why wellness words are weak
If you sell apparel under the name, that is Class 25, and a Class 41 registration for classes doesn’t cover the shirts. The name also has to appear as a brand, on a label or tag, not only as a big print across the front. Read more: Studio merch and Class 25
It depends on who used the name first and whether either of you has a federal registration. An earlier user keeps rights where it operates, and a federal registration gives nationwide priority from its filing date, subject to those earlier users. Read more: Same gym name, different state
Medical, beauty and spa services are Class 44. Fitness instruction and classes are Class 41. A clinic that also runs classes or sells products may need more than one class. Read more: Med spas and Class 44
Know where your name stands before the doors open.
Start here, or email us first. Either one gets you a straight answer about what to do next.
Seed is a clearance search and a written opinion letter from the attorney who ran it, in under two weeks. Not sure which package fits? Email us and we’ll point you to the right one.