Every business owner is looking for ways to get ahead of their competitors in this overwhelming, yet thrilling, world called “Corporate America”.

As such, you and your team way to come up with different innovations and creations that will beat that competition to the punch. No matter how creative your staff is, those ideas don’t come along every day.

So, when those ideas do come along, you want to create them and then protect them. 

Fortunately, trademarking can be a great way to legally protect those ideas. Here are several questions to ask when hiring a trademark attorney to set yourself up for success.

1. How Much Trademarking Experience Do You Have?

There’s one main reason that you’re even looking for a trademark attorney in the first place. You realize it’s importance, but don’t have the knowledge that’s necessary to do it on your own.

For that reason, you’ve decided to hire someone to take care of that portion of your business for you.

So now you’re top priority is going to be finding an attorney with the experience and know-how in trademark law.

Ask them straight up what their experience level is with trademark law. How many years of experience do they have? Do they specialize in it (you’ll only want to hire someone that does)?

Once they answer that, a great follow up question is to ask them for examples of previous clients that they’ve helped. 

Are any of those clients in a similar industry to yours? How successful have they been in registering previous trademarks for other clients?

Obviously, they’ll only highlight success stories, but this will still provide you with helpful information on who you’re hiring.

2. What Are Some Things I Can Trademark?

The expectation of the relationship with the trademark attorney you hire should be set during the interview process.

While you may think this question will sound weird or make you seem oblivious, it actually does the opposite. It lets your future attorney know how much you’ll depend on their experience.

This also opens the flood gates for potential trademarking opportunities. 

Ask them what are some things that your company can trademark. They should give you a few examples of things in your industry that would thrive from being trademarked. Their answers may be things that hadn’t even occurred to you.

These may be things like your company name, the name of a product or service you have, etc. Regardless, it’ll start the brainstorming for any potential trademarks.

3. What Do Your Fees Look Like?

One of the things that you should expect from the trademarking process, regardless of who you hire, is the hefty amount of fees.

Still, some firms and their attorneys charge more or less than others for each portion of the trademarking stage. They’ll also charge for the number of hours used to register a trademark in your name.

For hourly billing, you can expect a range from around $140 to $360 per hour. But also be sure to ask what the fees look like for the trademark application, for additional searches, and for watching all your registered trademarks.

Monitoring your trademarks after they’re registered is a crucial piece to the process. It means the attorney will watch over all your trademarks and make sure none of them are being infringed upon. 

If your trademarks are being violated by someone else, then legal action may need to be used. Needless to say, you’ll want to hire an attorney that prioritizes trademark watching for their clients.

All of these fees may seem like a lot more costs than you were anticipating. If so, consider a business funding solution to give yourself financial freedom to pursue hiring a trademark attorney.

4. Will You Have Your Hand in Every Part of My Trademarking Process?

As previously mentioned, this entire trademarking process is a very important aspect of your business.

However, it requires a fair amount of money, so you’ll want to make sure you’re getting exactly what you paid for.

Because of that, you’ll want to ask every attorney you’re considering hiring whether or not they’ll have their hand in every part of your process. This may seem like a wield question to ask.

You might be thinking: “Of course, they will. they are, after all, the trademark attorney.” But, it may shock you to find out the number of times that attorneys delegate paperwork duties to non-legal personnel such as interns.

Seeing as how the paperwork is vitally important to make sure your trademark is 100-percent foolproof, it’s important your attorney is overseeing it.

However, there’s nothing wrong with an attorney using others to do the paperwork. 

They have a busy schedule with other clients such as yourself. The most important part is knowing that, if they delegate paperwork to non-legal employees, they’re taking the time to review it.

As long as that’s the case, you’re in good hands with the trademark attorney that you hire and will get the most bang for your buck.

Find the Right Trademark Attorney for Your Business!

Now that you’ve got a better idea of the questions to ask a trademark attorney, it’s time to start the hiring process.

Be sure to perform several interviews and filter down to the one that fits your goals the best.

Be sure to read this article on getting a business loan without collateral. There you’ll have more information on getting the funding you’ll need for your trademarking endeavors.

For more inquiries, please start by filling out our pre-qualification form online and we’ll be happy to assist you further!