Trademark Registration Service Package

Fee

$750.00

The above-quoted fee is the General Counsel Online Filing Fee – the amount we charge for filing the federal trademark application on your behalf.  This includes all activities leading up to and including federal trademark filing, such as working with you to assess the mark eligibility and class of service, searching the US Patent & Trademark Office databases and common law sources for conflicting marks and writing an opinion letter to you concerning likelihood of success.  The Filing Fee does not include the fee charged by the USPTO for filing the trademark application, which may range from $250 to $350 or more, depending the how completely we are able to file.  GCO will send you an invoice with a payment link via Slack and email at the time this USPTO fee is due.  Payment of the fee is required in order for us to proceed with your trademark registration.

Post-Filing Fees are for services rendered AFTER the trademark application is filed. These will be charged in addition to the Filing Fee.  They are each purchased as a separate Service Package.  They are as follows:

  • Non-substantive Office Action: FREE.  Non-substantive Office Actions might include for example:
    • Missing or incorrect forms, fees, or signatures – Simple correction; no legal judgment required
    • Class classification or international class errors – Straightforward classification; administrative fix
    • Drawing or image format issues – File cleanliness, dimension compliance, technical specifications
    • Applicant entity information corrections – Name, address, entity type updates
    • Clarifications of field-of-use or goods/services description – Purely administrative refinement (unless they’re challenging the basis itself, which becomes substantive)
    • Specimen formalities – Minor issues like image quality, document format, or timing notation (as distinct from substantive specimen sufficiency)
  • Substantive Office Action: $350 to $1,000. Substantive Office Actions might include:
    • Likelihood of confusion – Comparative analysis required; needs argument about similarity of marks, goods/services, trade channels, and consumer sophistication
    • Descriptiveness, genericness, or merely ornamental – Requires evidence (dictionary definitions, use in trade, marketing materials) and legal argument about the mark’s primary significance to consumers
    • Deceptiveness or disparagement – Fact-intensive with policy/values judgment components
    • Non-use in commerce disputes – Requires investigation into actual use and may need specimen evidence, affidavits, or testimony
    • Quality control or related party issues – Involves substantive naked licensing analysis under trademark law
    • Specimen defects involving substantive issues – When the specimen itself is questioned on grounds beyond mere form (e.g., authenticity, contemporaneous use, proper display)
  • Opposition Proceeding before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board: $5,000 to $10,000 or more depending on complexity.
  • Miscellaneous Administrative Actions: $200 per occurrence.

General Counsel Online will send you links for these Service Packages after it has successfully filed the trademark, and as events are encountered. Before undertaking them, we will provide you an electronic invoice which you will pay in order to receive these services.  As with the Filing Fee, these fees are exclusive of fees charged by the USPTO for post-filing transactions, such as amendments, revisions, appeals, copies and international filings.  These range from $100 to $400, but can’t be predicted in advance, as they are often caused by Trademark Office Actions (i.e., responses to your application) and our own elections as concerns international filing.  For more information on the services and deliverables associated with these fees, please see below.

Value

The function of a trademark is to identify the source or origin of products or services used in commerce.  It ensures that your business has the exclusive right to use a particular name or logo associated with your products or services, avoiding the likelihood that the market might be confused about the origin of those goods, and entitling you to stop others’ use of it.  Trademarks are valuable property and can be licensed or sold like other property, providing your business with revenue and market leverage.

Process

After you purchase the Trademark Service Package, you will complete a brief online questionnaire, which we call a “Trademark Registration Interview”.  You will also upload any designs, logos or sound files, as well as specimens of your actual use of the mark.   After consultation, we will conduct trademark searches and offer a brief opinion letter on the potentials for both success and failure of the registration.   Before filing, we will again consult with you concerning our opinion and the advisability of filing.  After that, we will proceed to file all necessary documents with the USPTO.

Services & Deliverables

GCO’s trademark services are delivered in a graduated way, with different price points for each level of service.

“Filing” services are activities leading up to and including federal and state trademark filing:

  • GCO will help you select your mark for registration, and will consult with you concerning the appropriateness of state and federal trademark protection for the mark.
  • GCO will conduct a federal trademark search and advise you in a written opinion concerning the likelihood of success of your registration.
  • Based on the outcome of the search and opinion, we will file the registration application for the mark in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
  • The Filing services include a PA State Filing at no extra charge.

“Post-Filing” services are activities that follow in the months after filing until the time that USPTO registers the mark, refuses to register the mark or the mark is abandoned.  These activities are the subject of separate Service Packages, charged separately from this Service Package, as described below.

  • The USPTO may respond with an “Office Action” — a rejection of the application based on either substantive or non-substantive reasons.  Non-substantive reasons are technical or procedural deficiencies, such as a request for a change of international classification or a change or disclaimer concerning the use of words.  Substantive Office Actions concern the merits of the mark itself; it may, for example, conflict with or be confusingly similar to an existing mark or the mark may be alleged to be generic or descriptive.  Substantive Office Actions require that we file a legal argument to overcome the examiner’s objections.
  • After the USPTO allows the mark, it publishes it in the “Official Gazette” and allows 30 days for a party to oppose the mark’s registration.  The opposition is heard by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, which issues an opinion and judgment concerning the opposition.   We will represent your company before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
  • A number of other miscellaneous and advocacy documents may be filed before and after allowance of your mark by the USPTO.  For example, if your mark is not yet used in commerce, we may file an “intent to use” application, in which case a Statement of Use must follow the notice of allowance by the USPTO within 6 months (or the application must be extended).

Each of these kinds of services has separate fees associated with them.

Additional Terms & Conditions

This Trademark Service Package is governed by the terms of the GCO agreement with your firm.  You were provided a copy at the time you registered.  If you need another copy, please let us know.  This Trademark Service Package adds the following additional terms and conditions:

  1. The Service Package Fee is refundable upon your request until the services are rendered, less payment processing fees, which are on average about 3% of the purchase price. If services have been partially rendered, you are entitled to a reasonable partial refund.  The Filing Fees will not be held in escrow and will be treated as belonging to GCO, subject to refunds.  Refunds will be credited to the credit card that you used to purchase the Service Package.
  2. You acknowledge that GCO may currently represent, may in the past have represented, or may in the future represent, competitors of yours that are seeking trademark registration. By purchasing the Service Package, you consent to such potential representation.  We will not, however, represent a client whose interests are directly adverse to your own, or that causes a conflict of interest within GCO.  In such cases, we will withdraw from representation of either the other client or your company.
  3. We will make reasonable effort to find marks that may conflict with your own, but cannot guarantee that a trademark conflict does not exist
  4. If you file on an “intent to use” basis because your mark is not yet used in commerce, additional USPTO fees for later “proof-of use” filings and/or for extensions of time will be levied.  We may have to change the filing basis from “use in commerce” to “intent to use” for procedural reasons, such as an inadequate specimen.  In all such cases, actions such as these that are subsequent to the filing of the trademark are chargeable as separate Miscellaneous Administrative Actions Service Packages.
  5. We will provide a PDF version of the registration certificate when your mark is registered.  We will charge an additional $100 if you want a printed version mailed to you.