Indie Law is passionate about helping thriving entrepreneurs protect their brands as they level up in business. We know the law can seem overwhelming and complicated. That’s why created this page for you. From here, you can get answers to the most common questions we receive.
When you’re ready to start a conversation with our team, fill out our consult form on this page. Our office will call you right back to discuss next steps.
Indie Law has several options available to help you protect your brand and secure powerful trademark rights. These services include the following.
U.S. Trademark Application Packages
Indie Law can help apply for a U.S. trademark registration on your behalf. We will conduct a comprehensive search of the trademark database, prepare and submit the application on your behalf, and represent you throughout the application process.
When the application is successful — or if there are challenges along the way — we will keep you posted and strategize with you about next steps.
We offer payment plans as well as an option to assist you with an LLC formation if you would like to form a limited liability company before applying for a trademark registration.
Monitoring Packages
Whether you have applied for a trademark or not, you should still be closely monitoring the federal trademark database to make sure that no one attempts to claim a trademark that is similar to yours.
And if you have a trademark registration in place, you also have a duty to watch that database and enforce your rights or else you risk losing these strong trademark protections.
Consultation Calls
If you would like to speak with an attorney for advice about your trademarks and which service (if any) we recommend, you can click here to schedule a strategy consultation directly with our team. Our founding attorney, Joey C. Vitale, has created an online course that walks you through what you need to know about trademarks so that you can confidently file an application on your own.
If you don’t have the budget to invest in an attorney — and you have the time to learn and take action on your own — Joey’s PowerBrand® program is an excellent option.
Filing for a U.S. trademark application requires a filing fee of at least $250. These filing fees to the United States Patent and Trademark Office are not refundable, even if your application gets denied.
Indie Law’s trademark application packages start at around $2,000 — and we do have payment plans available.
We also have monitoring packages that start around $400 per year.
If you’d like to learn more about our prices and package details, click here to book a free call with us.
It’s helpful to break down the trademark process into two steps:
First, the pre-application steps:
When you sign up with Indie Law, our goal is to complete a comprehensive search and share those results with you within 1-2 weeks.
After you review those results and give us the green light to continue, we hope to prepare and submit your trademark application within 1 week.
In other words, you can expect to have your application filed within 2-3 weeks from when you hire Indie Law.
Second, the post-application steps:
After your application is filed, it is processed and reviewed by the trademark office. This can take anywhere from 10-16 months or longer. On average, our applications are approved in about 12 months.
A trademark can be a business name, logo, slogan, product line, podcast, or other “source identifier” for your business. Think of trademarks as your brand — when your customers see X, they know it’s coming from your business.
The purpose of trademarks is to prevent customer confusion. (How crazy would it be if there were two Starbucks-es and you didn’t know which business you were getting a latte from?)
Trademarks are critical for growing small businesses. These laws are what allow you to call “dibs” on your brand elements so that (1) a competitor won’t copy your brand and (2) you don’t have to worry about another business telling you that you have to change your brand.
Trademarks give you exclusive rights to your brand. Under U.S. law, you automatically have “common law” rights to your brand the moment you conduct business under that brand name.
But those automatic trademark rights are pretty weak. They only exclude others in your region from using that trademark or something similar.
This is why a U.S. trademark registration is so powerful.
With a U.S. trademark registration in place, you get exclusive rights nationwide to your brand.
Let’s be real. If you’re doing business these days, you have customers from all over the country.
Without nation-wide trademark rights, you’re conducting business on very shaky ground.
Indie Law helps businesses owners strategize and apply for U.S. trademark registrations.
Keeping your brand protected is a crucial part of conducting business. Trademark registrations are becoming increasingly important as more businesses are claiming brand names online through domain names and social media profiles.
Click here to learn more about the power of U.S. trademark registrations.
While a U.S. trademark registration does not offer exclusive protection outside of the United States, that does not mean that businesses foreign to the United States should completely ignore U.S. protections.
If you sell to customers — or potential customers — in the United States, then a U.S. trademark protection would likely be a powerful investment for your business.
We’re talking business names, logos, slogans . . . even podcast titles. Lots of entrepreneurs don’t protect their trademarks until it’s too late. So we made a short, free video to help you avoid the biggest, most dangerous mistakes that business owners make.
Wanna see it?
