- Is StrongTrademarks a law firm?
- It’s a service of one. StrongTrademarks is run by Gugliotta & Gugliotta, LPA, a licensed Ohio law firm, and the attorneys who review and file your application are the firm’s attorneys. Browsing the site isn’t legal advice for your situation. The attorney-client relationship forms when you sign the engagement letter at checkout, and from that point a licensed attorney is responsible for your filing.
- Why not just file myself on the USPTO website?
- You can, and many people do. The risk is that filing fees are non-refundable, and the most common self-filing mistakes (wrong filing basis, vague goods/services descriptions, defective specimens) either get your application refused or weaken the mark you eventually receive. You pay us, and we pay the USPTO when we file. If your attorney spots the problem first, nothing goes to the government, and we refund that $350 or hold it toward your next mark, whichever you’d rather.
- What does the flat fee cover?
- Attorney review of your filing basis, goods/services classification, mark description, and specimen, plus filing the application with the USPTO and forwarding their correspondence to you. It includes the USPTO’s own filing fee for one class, which we pay when we file; your receipt shows the attorney fee and the government fee as separate lines so you can see both. It doesn’t cover follow-on work beyond one administrative office action response (a disclaimer, a goods/services edit, or similar procedural fix).
- How long does the process take?
- Your attorney files within three business days of your payment. That date goes on our docket the moment you pay, and if it slips our own system nags us daily until it is done. Once filed, the USPTO’s own timeline is several months to publication and longer to registration.
- What if the USPTO refuses my application?
- Depends on the office action. If it’s administrative (a required disclaimer, an edit to the goods/services wording, or a similar procedural fix), we handle one of those under your flat fee. If it requires a substantive legal response (a likelihood-of-confusion or descriptiveness refusal, say), we’ll send you a copy and a quote to respond. You’re not on the hook unless you decide to proceed.
- Do you do trademark searches?
- Our flat fee includes a knock-out search of the federal register, which catches obvious conflicts. Past that there are two levels: $149 for an attorney to read those federal results with you, credited in full against your filing if you go ahead; and a full clearance search that looks past the register at state registrations, common-law use and domains, run through a search vendor and ending in a written opinion, quoted in writing before work starts. Both are on the fee schedule. Ask for either in your matter portal, or book a call if you are not a client yet. See the fee schedule.