

Ask HN: Trademark registering - jbrun

I am looking for a cheap service to register a trademark in the US, Canada, Europe. Any suggestions?
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pbhjpbhj
Do your own search and register direct with the offices yourself? Probably
only doable for a textual mark.

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CyberFonic
It's really not hard to do the search and registration yourself. You might
need to do a bit of reading, and/or asking questions. But no more difficult
than learning how to use the latest shiny thing properly.

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Be_Silly
Wow! You want to do US + EU!??

So, you're in the many $K in filing fees just to go via OHIM - Office
Harmonization Interior Market, to get a EU - wide "passport", and a 1.5yr plus
min time to registration, permitting zero challenges, which can be technical
from the office, or from watchful competitors. "Watchful competitors" include
big corps caring for the penumbra their rights cast.

So: nothing cheap.

If you have a VERY CLEAN application, which means you've thought this out a
long while first and read up good, _ATTORNEY FEES WILL BE THE SMALLEST COST
FOR WHAT YOU ASK_

Sorry for all the caps, but you see, you can negotiate simplified atorney fees
- you don't want to miss on a minimum response time to a fill-in form
question, do you, and you do want a service address for all this etc?

Where attorney fees are a big thing is where you've no clue as to the
suitability of your trademark or the areas of business you wish to enter into
of might apply that mark to. Then, it gets silly. Or alternatively, cheap only
if you plan to scale past a little startup.

Oh, yeah, you do realize you have to actually DO business on record in these
jurisdictions to keep your marks, and also to keep marks you have to protect
them by fighting infringment no matter how silly, or you vacate your claim,
don't you?

Basically, you asked about a commitment amount of money, maybe wondering if
it's like registering a domain, which conveys zero rights (See Zappa decision
for the very latest in a long list of stupid loosers).

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Be_Silly
Sorry, to clarify, OHIM fees aren't that bad, but you do have to get a
translator because you need 2 EU languages, say Eng / French, and again all
that local service address stuff, and if you're a US Corp, registering your
corp as trading in the EU, somewhere, someplace, and filing even blank tax
returns.

What you really need is an Uncle of a friend who's in this business, and tel
lthem you'll f=do the donkey work, but can you use their office and beg tricky
questions. Network it. Be prepared for some of the snottiest put-downs though
:)

That said, DO IT THE HARD WAY YOU'LL LEARN A F'N TON about business!

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Be_Silly
Whoa, i just checked your profile and you work / founded a business in a legal
services field.

Not being funny, but i' surprised you're asking HN.

