Straight answers, grouped by where you are.
41 questions people actually ask before and after filing — including the ones where the honest answer costs us the sale.
41 questions
Just starting out
Choosing a name, deciding whether to file at all
Do I need a trademark if I already registered my LLC?
Yes — they protect different things. An LLC registration creates a business entity in one state and stops another company registering the identical entity name in that state. It gives you no rights in the brand name itself. A federal trademark covers the name nationally for the goods and services you registered it for. Plenty of businesses discover the difference when a company in another state starts using their name legally.
Is a Google search enough to check whether a name is taken?
No. Google shows you who is visible, not who holds rights. A mark can be registered, dormant, and completely absent from the web while still blocking your application — and the USPTO will find it even though your search did not.
Can I trademark a name that is already used by someone in a different industry?
Often yes. Trademark rights are tied to particular goods and services, which is why Delta exists as both an airline and a tap manufacturer. The test is whether buyers would likely be confused, and that depends on how close the goods are, how similar the marks are, and how they reach customers. Similar name plus unrelated industry is frequently fine; similar name plus adjacent industry usually is not.
Do I have any rights if I never register?
Some. Using a name in commerce creates common-law rights in the geographic area where you actually trade. They are real but narrow, expensive to prove, and they do not stop somebody else registering the name federally and using it everywhere you are not.
Should I trademark the name or the logo?
For most businesses the name, first. A word mark protects the name however it is styled, so it survives a rebrand of the logo. A logo mark protects that specific design and little else. If you can only file one, the name usually carries more of the value — though a highly distinctive logo can be worth its own filing later.
What is the difference between a trademark and a copyright?
A trademark protects what identifies the source of your goods — names, logos, slogans. Copyright protects creative works — writing, music, images, code. Your brand name is a trademark question. The photographs on your website are a copyright question. They are separate systems with separate registrations.
Can I trademark a common word?
It depends on what you sell. Apple is registrable for computers and unregistrable for fruit. The further a word sits from describing your own goods, the stronger it is. Words that merely describe what you sell are refused as descriptive, and words that name the product itself can never be registered by anyone.
Selling online
Amazon, Etsy, Shopify and marketplace protection
Do I need a registered trademark for Amazon Brand Registry?
You need either a registered mark or, in most cases, a pending application filed through Amazon's IP Accelerator. A plain pending application filed elsewhere is accepted in many cases but not all, and Amazon changes these requirements periodically — check their current eligibility page before you rely on any timeline, including ours.
How fast can I get into Brand Registry?
Enrolment itself is usually days to a couple of weeks once your trademark is eligible. What takes the time is the trademark. Registration commonly runs past a year, which is why sellers file as early as possible rather than waiting until a hijacker appears.
Someone is selling knock-offs of my product. What can I actually do?
Without a registration your options are limited to the platform's general counterfeit reporting, which is slow and weakly enforced. With one you get the platform's brand-protection tooling, faster takedowns, and the ability to have a lawyer send a demand that carries weight. Enforcement itself needs an attorney — it is not something a filing service should be doing for you.
Do I need a trademark to sell on Etsy or Shopify?
No, you can sell without one. What you cannot do without one is stop somebody else using your shop name, and you have limited recourse if a competitor reports your listings or opens a shop under a near-identical name. The trademark is protection, not permission.
Word mark or logo mark for Amazon?
Word mark, for most sellers. Amazon matches text exactly, and a word mark covers the name in any styling. A design mark can be interpreted narrowly, which causes friction in Brand Registry that a word mark avoids.
Ready to file
Cost, classes, what the process involves
How much does it cost to trademark a name?
Two separate numbers. Our service fee is $199, once. The USPTO charges $350 per class of goods or services, paid to the government rather than to us. A single-class filing is therefore $549 in total. We never mark up the government fee, and we confirm your class count before any of it is due. Filing from outside the United States is $349 rather than $199, because the USPTO requires foreign-domiciled applicants to have a licensed US attorney.
How do I know how many classes I need?
One for each distinct thing your brand covers. A coffee brand selling beans and running a café needs two — class 30 for the beans, class 43 for the café. A product business that also sells through its own online shop usually needs class 35 on top of the product class. Most small businesses need one or two, and our estimator works it out with you before anything is payable.
Why is my filing fee more than $350 a class?
Since January 2025 the USPTO charges a base fee plus surcharges: $200 more per class if the goods are described in your own words instead of its pre-approved wording, $100 for missing information, and $200 per extra 1,000 characters. Filings written from pre-approved wording stay at the base fee, which is how we prepare them.
Can I file the trademark myself?
Yes. The USPTO's system is open to any applicant and plenty of people file successfully alone. Where it goes wrong is usually the goods and services wording — too broad, too narrow, or written from scratch and surcharged. If you are US-based, comfortable reading the ID Manual, and your mark is distinctive, self-filing is a reasonable choice and we will say so.
Do I need a lawyer to register a trademark?
Not if you are US-based — the USPTO permits self-filing. You do if your domicile is outside the United States, where a licensed US attorney is mandatory. Between those two poles it is a judgement about risk: a straightforward distinctive name is low-risk, a name close to an existing mark is where legal judgement earns its fee.
What is intent to use, and do I need it?
It is the basis you file on when you have not started selling yet — you are reserving the name against later filers. You get the earlier filing date, but the registration only issues once you show real use and pay the additional fee for that step. If you are already selling, you file on use instead and skip that stage.
Are USPTO fees refundable if my application fails?
No. Government fees are non-refundable once processed, whatever the outcome. That is true on every route — self-filed, through a service, or through a law firm — and it is the reason to check a name before paying them.
Filed and waiting
Timelines, status codes, what happens next
How long does trademark registration take?
Commonly a year or more from filing to registration when nothing goes wrong, and longer when an office action is issued. The bulk of that is the queue before an examining attorney ever opens your file. Nobody can shorten it, and any service promising a fixed fast registration is describing something other than the USPTO's actual timeline.
What does my status code mean?
Each code is a stage in the process, and a few of them start a clock. 641 means an office action was mailed and a response deadline is running. 680 means the examiner cleared it. 700 means registered. Our status code library explains each one in plain English and tells you whether a deadline is attached.
Can I change my trademark application after filing?
Some things, within limits. You can narrow your goods and services; you cannot broaden them. You cannot materially alter the mark itself — a different name means a new application and a new fee. Owner details and correspondence addresses can be corrected.
Can I use the ™ symbol before I am registered?
Yes. ™ signals that you are claiming a mark and requires no registration at all. The ® symbol is different: it may only be used once the mark is actually registered, and using it before then is a real problem that can be raised against your application.
What is publication for opposition?
Once an examiner approves your mark it is published so that anyone who believes it would harm their own rights can object, within a set window. Most applications pass through without an opposition. If one is filed, it becomes a proceeding before the TTAB and needs an attorney.
Got a refusal
Office actions, deadlines, what the options are
How long do I have to respond to an office action?
The response period is printed on your letter, and that date governs. Do not assume six months — response periods have changed in recent years. Open the document in USPTO TSDR and read the date on it rather than relying on any summary, this one included.
What happens if I miss the deadline?
The application goes abandoned. Reviving it needs a petition, an additional fee, and an accepted reason for the delay, and it is not guaranteed. This is the one deadline in the whole process that is genuinely unforgiving.
Does an office action mean my trademark was rejected?
No. It means an examining attorney raised something — sometimes a legal refusal, often just a requirement like clarifying your goods wording or disclaiming a generic word. A large share of applications receive one. It is a normal step, not a verdict.
Can I respond to an office action myself?
Sometimes, and we will tell you when. A substitute specimen or an agreed disclaimer is often something an applicant can handle alone. A likelihood-of-confusion refusal is a legal argument about your specific facts, and that is a different job.
What does a 2(d) likelihood of confusion refusal mean?
The examiner believes your mark is close enough to one already registered that buyers could be confused, for related goods. It is the most common substantive refusal. Routes out generally include arguing the marks or goods are distinguishable, narrowing your description, or a consent agreement with the cited owner — which of those fits depends entirely on your facts.
How much does responding cost?
$299 flat with us, whatever the refusal turns out to be, with no hourly billing and no second invoice. Firms typically bill this hourly, which is why the same refusal can cost very different amounts elsewhere.
Will responding get my trademark approved?
Not necessarily. A well-argued response often clears the refusal, but the examiner may maintain it. If that happens you keep the right to appeal to the TTAB, and we explain the options rather than going quiet.
Already registered
Renewals, monitoring, enforcement
Does my trademark expire?
Not on its own, but it is cancelled if you miss a maintenance filing. A Section 8 declaration confirming continued use falls between the fifth and sixth year after registration. Section 9 renewal is every ten years. Miss either and a perfectly valid registration is cancelled.
Does the USPTO tell me if someone files something similar to my mark?
No. The USPTO examines applications against the register, but it does not police your mark for you and it will not contact you when a similar application appears. Watching for that is the owner's job, which is what monitoring is for.
Someone registered a name close to mine. What can I do?
If it is still in the opposition window you can oppose it before the TTAB. After registration the route is cancellation, which is slower and harder. Either way it needs a licensed attorney — we introduce clients to attorneys in our network rather than pretending this is something a filing service can handle.
What does monitoring actually do?
It watches your USPTO record and status changes, your Section 8, 9 and 15 deadlines, new applications in related classes with similar marks, and domains, handles and marketplace listings appearing under your name. It tells you early enough to act. It cannot stop anyone filing — no service can.
Do I have to enforce my trademark to keep it?
In practice, yes. Rights that are never enforced can weaken, and a mark that becomes the general term for the product can be lost entirely — it has happened to escalator and aspirin. You are not required to sue everyone, but ignoring infringement indefinitely has consequences.
About us
Who we are, what we charge, what we will not do
Are you a law firm?
No. My Trademark Vault is an independent LegalTech product company. We are not a law firm and nothing on this site is legal advice. Applications and office action responses are prepared by us and reviewed by a licensed US attorney. Using the site does not create an attorney-client relationship, and we are not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.
Can you guarantee my trademark will register?
No, and nobody can. Registration is the USPTO's decision. What we control is that the application is prepared properly, uses pre-approved wording, is reviewed by an attorney before submission, and that no deadline is missed. Any service promising approval is selling something it cannot deliver.
What does the free brand check actually check?
Live domain registration records and public social profiles for the name you give us. It does not search the USPTO register, state business filings, marketplaces or news. The report says exactly which categories were checked and which would need a full search, so you are never guessing about what was covered.
Why are you cheaper than a law firm?
Because we do the preparation and an attorney does the judgement, rather than an attorney doing both at hourly rates. That trade is right for straightforward filings and wrong for genuinely contested matters — where it is wrong, we say so and point you to the attorneys in our network.
What happens to my data?
It is used to prepare and file your matter and to contact you about it. We do not sell it. Payment is handled by Stripe and we never see or store your card details. The privacy policy sets out the detail.