Trademark Readiness Checklist

A free checklist of what to settle before you file a trademark application: mark type, clearance searching, correct class selection, specimen requirements, and the details that most often cause a USPTO refusal. Most refusals are avoidable, and they are avoidable at this stage.

What it covers

• Mark type — whether to file the name as a standard character mark, the logo as a design mark, or both, and why the order matters.
• Distinctiveness — where your mark sits on the spectrum from generic to fanciful, and what that means for whether it can register.
• Clearance — what a real search covers beyond typing your name into the federal database.
• Classes — identifying the international classes that match what you actually sell, and the consequences of getting the description wrong.
• Filing basis — use in commerce versus intent to use, and which one your situation supports.
• Specimens — what the USPTO will accept as evidence of use, and the mock-ups it will not.
• Ownership — filing in the correct legal name, which is a surprisingly common and expensive error to fix.

Who it is for

Anyone about to file, whether on their own or with an attorney. If you are filing yourself, this is the list that prevents the most common refusals. If you are hiring someone, it tells you what they should be asking you.

What it does not do

It does not clear your mark. It tells you what clearance involves. Our trademark registration flat fee is $1,500 including the clearance search and the USPTO filing fee for one class.

The refusals this is designed to prevent

• Likelihood of confusion. The most common substantive refusal, and the one a clearance search addresses. It is not limited to identical marks — similar sound, appearance, or meaning across related goods is enough.
• Descriptiveness. Marks that describe a feature or quality of what you sell are refused on the Principal Register unless they have acquired distinctiveness, which generally takes years of substantially exclusive use.
• Specimen refusals. The evidence you submit has to show the mark used in commerce the way the rules require. Mock-ups, invoices, and advertising material are refused regularly, and for services the requirements differ from goods.
• Identification problems. Descriptions that are too broad, too vague, or in the wrong class draw refusals, and the identification can be narrowed later but never broadened. Getting it wrong at filing sets a ceiling on what you will ever own.
• Ownership errors. Filing in the wrong legal name — an individual instead of the company, or an entity that does not exist yet — is correctable in some circumstances and fatal in others.

Frequently asked questions

Will this stop me getting an office action?

It removes the most common avoidable causes. It cannot remove a conflict with an earlier mark, which is what a clearance search is for.

Can I use this if I have already filed?

Yes, though some things cannot be changed after filing. If you have already filed and want it checked, our flat-fee application review is $250.