Starting a website/business comes with some baggage that can be quite difficult to carry, especially for individuals who have little to no experience with the many legal elements of starting a business. Due to a limited budget I was forced to tackle some pretty daunting tasks on my own. One of the more difficult tasks was protecting our business through the registration of a trademark. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) can be an intimidating entity. They possess the power to approve or deny your trademark registration which, if denied, could end up costing you more than just large sums of money. Through research, attention to detail, and the drive to reach your goal, registering your own trademark isn’t a pipe dream; it can be done.

Of course utilizing an attorney for your trademark registration is always the safest choice if you have the thousands of dollars to cover the cost. However, I’m willing to bet there are a lot of startups out there that simply can’t afford the added burden to their pocket book. If you’ve come to the conclusion that you can’t afford an attorney this article was written for you and will hopefully provide you with an overview of the entire process of registering a trademark.

Even with the absence of an attorney you still need to be prepared to pay $350.00 – $1,500.00 for the USPTO filing fees. There is a reason the cost can vary so much; it depends on how many classes you need to register. At the time this article was written the fee/charge per class was $325.00 (Please follow the second link below to find the current fee schedule). A class or more specifically classification is used to identify the goods or services that correspond to your trademark/business. Some businesses offer goods or services that can’t be adequately covered by just one class, this is when the costs can really add up. It should also be noted that a trademark can also be considered a service mark depending on the type of business for which the mark is being registered. (more…)