Trademark Filing Process
 

Anyone here trademarked their site names/brands. Just wondering what is the best process to get it done quickly and hassle free. Also wondering if it is much different for adult sites?

Anyone that has actually done it did you just submit your own paperwork or go through a 3rd party service?

Nobody has done this?

bump for some answers :)

http://www.legalzoom.com/

Also check out Joe Escalante's podcast and live radio show on Fridays 9:00-10:00
He talks about how to do copyrights and trademarks and other entertainment laws. http://www.BarelyLegalRadio.com/pages/index.php

Filing on-line is easy...

The main things that trips up some are: "word mark"? -for most, the answer is yes. And the "ITU" (Intent to Use) part - if you're actively using the mark(s) now in commerce, then answer no to ITU question.

More fundlementally though, the real difficulty is determing what mark(s) to trademark, in what class(es), descriptions, etc...

If you have some time, lookup other marks, including those in other fields, to get a feel of how to best go about determining what mark(s) to register, class(es), and the optimal description to use.

Be wary of 3rd party TM services, because some don't do much beyond simply file paperwork; that you already can do yourself.

If going the professional route, best to hire a TM attorney who will work with you one on one. Expect to spend several hundred to more likely a thousand or two depending on number of marks and complexity, PLUS registration fees which will be around $700 or so for each registration.

On a related topic, common law trademarks (ie. not registered with the USPTO) are often still quite enforceable, including in UDRP challenges...

The date that typically matters is the first date of active use in commerce not the date of filing (except for ITUs). So don't feel rushed - take your time and do it right.

Ron

2nd vote for www.legalzoom.com for most of your legal needs like that.

Be careful with legal zoom or any other self help TM filing. With TMs you get out what you put in. If you do it wrong, you may waste all the time and effort not to mention the time building the brand.

A TM is only as strong as the filing and your protection of it. It isnt hard but it is tricky, especially once you start to get office action notices from USPTO.

We do TMs that are relatively no issues for $1000 including the USPTO fees. Saving a couple hundred might seem like a good idea until you have to litigate your mark the the IP attorney you hire tells you that you did something wrong in the filing process. Too late then.

The main thing I'm wondering, are adult trademarks any different then normal ones?

I keep forgetting you are around. Judging by what you just said, you at least do not have full on fuck you prices either. :thumbsup

What kind of rate would it be to say fine tune a model release for use in California for the most part.

Basically if you got enough money you can trademark what ever you like as long as it does not exhist in the TSS.

PS: 90% of file application are declined after they take your 50 bucks per application.

PSII: Filing trademarks is quite simple you can do it online at the USPTO, don;t let the bogey eared Attornies tell you different. You can file a TM yourself and work on it yourself it is quite fun. its just a long process more than it is difficult.

However keeping your application alive during the process is the trick, while you are in the process of Trademarking besure to publicise the Pending trademark or service mark in company materials and company promotional materials, over time you will solidify your trademark or service mark and then it will approve.

Again the process is not hard at all it just takes time and paying attention to the letters and process as you go along with it. You wont get the TM over night.

Before any of that though besure to research the USPTO Trademark database for other competing applications.

Not that I know of but I am not an attorney:)

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/06/11...e-cant-tr.html

Cybernet?s request met the government?s most preliminary standard: No one else was using the word ?fuckingmachines.? But it didn?t clear another, more important hurdle: The patent office believes the word ?fuck? is ?scandalous,? and won?t allow Cybernet owner Peter Acworth to trademark it, or any variation of it.
?Registration is refused because the proposed mark consists of or comprises immoral or scandalous matter,? wrote Michael Engel, the attorney who reviewed the case for the government. ?The term ?fucking? is an offensive and vulgar reference to the act of sex. ? A mark that is deemed scandalous ... is not registrable.?

I had a company file 20 of my site names and a few company names many years ago it was simple but not quick, some took as long as a year to complete. But the cost was only $600 each and ive made back quite a bit in actions against people using my ® names in web addresses etc. Definitely worthwhile

Correct. And the USPTO is far stricter than Network Solutions (a different company than the current one) back in the day ever was with forbidding such domain names ... with the USPTO, I could not one single exception - they are stubborn about not allowing such words through.

Cybernet should brand a line called "Fuxing Machines" and try to TM that...

One company already successfully (though it's since been canceled due to no section 8 filing) TMed "Fuxing" - claimed it was translation of Chinese characters for "rich" and "flourishing" :1orglaugh

Ron