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Trademark Acquisition and Counseling

ADD+G’s trademark attorneys provide legal services for acquiring, protecting, enforcing, and managing trademarks.

Our services include trademark searches through U.S. federal, state, and international trademark databases and analysis of the results to advise clients on how best to proceed to protect and enforce their trademark rights. We also file and prosecute federal, state, and international trademark applications.

ADD+G trademark attorneys manage national and international trademark registration portfolios for clients of all sizes and develop domestic and international trademark acquisition and protection strategies.

ADD+G has been named one of the Top 50 trademark firms by the trade journal Intellectual Property Today, based on the number of United States trademark registrations granted, and a Top 50 trademark firm by Trademark Insider.

What is Trademark

A trademark can be any word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination of these things that identifies your goods or services. It’s how customers recognize you in the marketplace and distinguish you from your competitors.

The word “trademark” can refer to trademarks for goods and also trademarks for services known as “service marks”. Trademarks for goods use the “TM” symbol and trademarks for services use a “SM” symbol before they are registered.  However, when a trademark for goods or services is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office the “®” symbol is used.

A trademark identifies you as the source of your goods or services. Your trademark provides legal protection for your brand and helps you fight against others attempting to copy, infringe, and unlawfully benefit from your trademark goodwill.

A trademark that comprises a fanciful word or an arbitrary word unrelated to your goods and services is a much stronger trademark than one that merely describes your goods or services. Accordingly, creative and unique trademarks are more effective and easier to protect than a trademark that is descriptive of your good and services.

What Can Be Trademarked

Almost anything can be a trademark if it indicates the source of your goods and services. For example, a trademark could be a word, phrase, logo, design, or a combination of these. A sound such as a distinctive ringtone or jingle can be a trademark and even a specific color can be protected by trademark rights.

How a Trademark Attorney Can Help You

ADD+G trademark attorneys have years of experience that can assist you in successfully navigating the trademark process. For example, we can provide you valuable legal advice about your trademark and perform a trademark clearance search before you file an application. More importantly, we can prepare your application accurately and avoid unnecessary missteps and expense during the application process.

In addition, ADD+G’s trademark attorneys are experienced in responding to legal correspondence from the USPTO in order to efficiently guide your application through the trademark process. This includes resolving issues directly with the USPTO Trademark Examiners and representing you before the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

ADD+G’s trademark attorneys know how to best advise you on your trademark’s registrability, prepare your application, and respond to the USPTO on the various issues that might arise throughout the process.

Our Trademark Law Firm's Services

ADD+G’s trademark attorneys assist all types and sizes of clients with protecting and enforcing their trademarks rights. This includes start-up companies and entrepreneurs as well as international clients with a world-wide presence. Our network of foreign trademark associates allows ADD+G to coordinate your trademark rights seamlessly between the U.S. and abroad.

Trademark Acquisition

ADD+G’s trademark acquisition services include the registration, maintenance, and renewal of trademarks in the United States and worldwide. This includes the preparation, filing, and prosecution of new trademark applications and timely renewing your trademark registrations to keep them active.

We can assist in applications for trademarks on all types of good and services including trademarks used on regulated products (e.g. cannabis, drug paraphernalia) and activities (e.g. gambling and wagering, retail stores featuring controlled substances) that are subject to additional review by the USPTO.

Trademark Counseling

ADD+G’s trademark attorneys have extensive experience in counseling clients as to their trademark rights. For example, we perform trademark clearance searches and analyze the trademark search results using our significant experience to provide the best possible advice for our clients in the trademark registration process. Moreover, trademarks are valuable assets and ADD+G’s trademark attorneys assist clients in the due diligence process in connection with mergers and acquisitions transactions. Our services also include performing trademark portfolio audits and strategic counseling to our clients to determine the most effective approach to protecting and enforcing their trademark rights.

Trademark Litigation

ADD+G’s trademark attorneys have developed a reputation over 50 years for vigorously protecting and successful enforcing our client’s trademark rights in state and Federal courts. Most often trademark disputes are handled through the Federal court system for violations of the Lanham Act. The Lanham Act provides for a national system of trademark registration and protects the owner of a federally registered mark against the use of similar marks if such use is likely to result in consumer confusion, or if the dilution of a famous mark is likely to occur.  In addition, even unregistered trademarks are protected under the Lanham Act in order to prevent consumer confusion as to the source, sponsorship or affiliation of a product or service. States also have similar state trademark laws against unfair competition and deceptive trade practices.

Work with Allen Dyer’s Trusted Trademark Attorneys

Contact us for an initial consultation regarding your trademark rights. Whether you are starting a new company or launching a new product or service, we are ready to protect and enforce your trademark rights.

Allen Dyer has offices located in Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville and Winter Springs.

Florida Trademark Law Firm FAQs

There are some common misconceptions about trademarks. One we hear often is that forming a company means that you own the trademark on your company name. However, forming a company is a different process than the trademark registration process with completely different legal ramifications and is not a substitute for registering your trademark. 

Another misconception is that once you have the trademark registration that you can prevent everyone else from using that word. In fact, a trademark registration is for a particular type or class of goods and services.  Accordingly, if your trademark registration is for a word to identify your brand of vehicle tires, then someone else could register that same word for use with restaurant services because it is unrelated to vehicle tires. Thus, there are many trademark registrations for the same word used by different companies for different products.

The process for getting a U.S. trademark registration begins with an initial consultation with an ADD+G trademark attorney.  Determining the proper description of the goods and services is a critical first step in the application process that is discussed during the initial consultation. Once all the required information is obtained, we prepare and file the trademark application electronically with the USPTO. In approximately 6 months, the trademark application is examined by the USPTO to determine the registerability of the trademark. The application is then published for opposition and the registration issues if no opposition is filed against the trademark.  

It is not a legal requirement for U.S. citizens to have an attorney represent them before the USPTO. However, having an experienced ADD+G trademark attorney represent you before the USPTO is more likely to result in a trademark application being approved than doing it yourself. There are a number of legal decisions that need to be made along the way of preparing and prosecuting a trademark application that affect the examination and outcome of the application. The experience of ADD+G trademark attorneys can help make sure the proper decisions are made.

The attorneys’ fees for preparing and filing a U.S. trademark application are flat fees and may be discounted for multiple trademarks filed at the same time. ADD+G trademark attorneys’ fees are in addition to the government filing fees, which are currently $350 per class of goods or services.

Attorneys’ fees for litigation issues vary and depend on the complexity of the issues involved. An estimate of the attorneys’ fees that may be incurred in addressing a trademark litigation issue can be provided by the ADD+G trademark attorney after an initial consultation and discussion of the facts and legal circumstances.

Examples of things which CANNOT be copyrighted include:

  • Titles, names, short phrases & slogans
  • Familiar symbols or designs
  • Variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring
  • Listings of ingredients or contents

Works created on or after January 1, 1978, have a copyright term of the life of the author plus seventy years after the author’s death. Works made for hire or pseudonymous works have a term of 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter.

Fees for registering a copyright (government fees) vary from $45 at the low end to $500 or more (for registration of works such as marine vessel designs or databases), depending on the nature of the work and of related documentation. The basic government copyright registration costs $45-65 for electronic registration, or $125 for paper filing (not including attorneys fees).