In the bustling world of business, where ideas evolve into brands and creativity fuels success, trademarks stand as the guardians of company’s identity and reputation. A trademark is more than just a symbol; it embodies the essence of your client’s business, representing its core values and brand promises. However, many entrepreneurs, in their rush to choose a trademark, often overlook a crucial step: conducting a trademark search. Or worse, the client believes that doing their own search gets the job done, but we trademark attorneys know that can lead to a spooky outcome. What might seem like a minor detail can lead to a nightmarish scenario, where the very essence of your client’s business could be at risk. Let’s unravel the spine-chilling tale of what can happen when businesses skip this vital step in the trademark process.
1. No Trademark Search Increases the Risk of Receiving a Demand Letter
Recently, a client of mine received a demand letter for her trademark that registered a year ago. It’s a myth that if you have an existing trademark registration you cannot receive a demand letter, be forced to rebrand, or enter litigation. This is all highly dependent on who is the prior user! To avoid a spooky scenario like this, your clients should hire you to conduct a proper trademark search for them! Trademarks searches are conducted for two reasons: to make sure the mark the client wants to use is available and to be sure the client is not stepping on someone else’s rights.
2. No Trademark Search Can Lead to Your Client Losing Credibility and Trust
The client’s brand is its promise to its customers. If another company with a similar name or logo exists, customers can get confused, leading to a loss of trust in the brand. This confusion can be detrimental to the company, eroding the credibility the client has worked so hard to build. It’s hard to come back
from a tarnished reputation, and the PR nightmare alone can be difficult for some companies to handle. By conducting a trademark search at the outset, a client can often avoid this frightening scenario.
3. No Trademark Search Can Increase the Legal Cost for Your Client
The costs of rebranding can be staggering. For the client to change logos, marketing materials, and even its website and social media channels often requires substantial financial investment. If the client manufactures a physical product, the costs will be significantly more. When you are onboarding
your clients make sure they understand this risk, especially if they tell you they already conducted the search themselves. While it’s always a client’s decision whether to conduct a search, this ounce of prevention is well worth the investment. In addition, not conducting a search can lead to unforeseen litigation and legal costs that can cost up to 100x the cost to register their trademark. It’s true what they say: “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Conclusion
Remember, a trademark is an asset of any business and can be used to protect the business
from terrifying offenders. Trademark searches are one of the most important things we do as trademark counsel. Like anything else in the law, you must practice reviewing searches and assessing the risk of many different marks in order to get comfortable with this process and build your confidence. Trademarkabilities® can help. Through our Trademarkabilities®Masterclass, we offer comprehensive, step-by-step training designed to teach attorneys and paralegals how to confidently conduct trademark searches and provide search opinions to their clients. Trademarkabilities help legal practitioners confidently practice trademark law at the USPTO. To learn more, check out our website here.
Stacey C. Kalamaras is the founder and lead instructor of Trademarkabilities®, an online trademark training academy designed to help lawyers learn and practice trademark law. Through clear, step-by-step lessons and supportive group mentoring, we’ll give you the tools to confidently navigate the trademark application process at the USPTO and build a thriving practice in a fast-growing field. Stacey started Trademarkabilities to share her passion teaching the law with the next generation of lawyers and help them become practice ready lawyers. Contact us at: hello@trademarkabilities.com .