The Third Time’s a Charm

Michael Atkins, trademark attorney and the writer of the excellent Seattle Trademark Lawyer blog, points to a story in the Seattle Times about a business owner who twice failed to obtain trademark protection for his goods (wine) before finally succeeding on the third try. The business owner chose to forgo the services of a trademark attorney and attempted to register his mark on his own. The business owner justified his decision by stating that he didn’t want to pay $10,000.00 to a trademark lawyer to register his mark.

Like Michael, I don’t know of any trademark attorney that charges $10,000.00 to clear, file, and attempt to register a mark. But the point is that $10,000.00 is cheap compared to the potential cost of procuring your own trademark without help or compared to the potential value of your brand. If your brand is eventually worth $1,000,000.00, then securing that brand for $10,000.00 seems like a good deal. And you don’t have to waste thousands of dollars in advertising materials and your time to deal with refusals. As a business owner, you should focus on making the best quality product or attaining high levels of service, not fooling around with the the Patent and Trademark Office.

I should also note that, in my experience, this situation occurs regularly and I often have to charge more to fix the problem than I would have charged if the business owner had simply come to me first.