The My US Trademark Process

Congratulations on taking the first step toward protecting what makes your brand unique!

Registering and maintaining a U.S. trademark ensures your exclusive rights, helps prevent infringement, and strengthens your brand’s position in the marketplace.

Getting Started is Easy — Here’s How It Works

STEP 1

Review the branding services you are interested in, read and agree to the terms of the Engagement Agreement with Harris & Long LLC, legal counsel for trademark services, then add your desired service(s) to your cart.

STEP 2

Complete your checkout, provide payment and schedule your 30-minute attorney consultation call if it is part of your desired service.

STEP 3

When your order is accepted by legal counsel we will email you (i) a copy of your signed Engagement Agreement for your records, and (ii) our Trademark Information Form for you to complete and return. If your services include an attorney consultation, we will also provide the contact information for your scheduled attorney consultation.

STEP 4

Following your phone consultation, if you have purchased one of our registration services, one of our trademark attorneys will begin preparation of your application for review and submission to the USPTO usually within five (5) business days.

Federal Trademarks Generally

Federal trademarks can be registered in the United States for either standard character marks (words only) or design marks like logos or artwork with the USPTO. A federally registered trademark in the United States grants the holder of that mark exclusive rights to use that mark in the international class(es) for which the mark is issued.

There are 34 international classes for types of goods and 11 international classes for types of services. Applicants must select at least one international class when applying for a trademark. See our FAQs for a listing of the international classes. For more information on international classes from the USPTO website, click here.

Application Requirements

A trademark applicant can be an individual, a limited liability company, a corporation, partnership or other legal entity. The applicant should be the party who uses or controls the mark. You can only submit one trademark per application. However you may select multiple international classes to apply to that one trademark. The owner of the mark must be identified and a street address provided for the person or entity along with an email address and phone number. The name and address of the owner will be publicly available on the USPTO database, however phone numbers and email addresses may be kept private. Harris & Long LLC will appear as the contact party for My US Trademark clients.

USPTO Filing Basis

There are four basis for filing your mark application - 1) Actual use 1(a) for when the product or service is currently in commerce, 2) Intent to Use 1(b) for when your product or service has not yet been introduced into commerce, 3) Foreign Application 44(d) and 4) Foreign Application 44(e). Filing either a 44(d) or 44(e) based application is available only for eligible foreign trademark applicants or owners seeking to file the same mark in the United States to gain a filing date priority from the foreign submission, or base a USPTO filing on an already registered foreign mark. The most common filing basis is either 1(a) or 1(b).

USPTO Filing

The USPTO only accepts applications via its online Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS). It currently charges a basic electronic filing fee of $350 per international class for each application. If for example you are filing to use a desired trademark in 2 international classes (like a tee shirt product you are selling together with services to design tee shirts), then your application fees payable to the USPTO would be $700 for the two international classes.

Beginning in 2025, the USPTO has instituted a new fee of $100 per international class to be assessed on any submitted application that does not contain sufficient information for processing. We encourage you to provide us with all requested information to avoid processing delays as we will not be able to submit incomplete applications.

Application Submission and Review Timeline

We commit to filing your trademark application promptly, usually within 5 business days of receipt of either your completed information form or any supplemental information that we have notified you may be needed. The timeline for USPTO processing of trademark applications is currently about 7 months. The initial stage consists of the review by the USPTO examining attorney which can take up to 5 months. If the application is approved to move forward, the mark is published for opposition which can take a further 2-3 months. Here is a link to the USPTO website where you can check the status of applications once they have been submitted. For more information regarding USPTO application review timelines, please click here.

Non-Substantive USPTO Office Actions and Requests

Once your application is filed, the application waits for review by an examining USPTO attorney. As part of the review process, we may receive non-substantive office actions or requests from the USPO examiner. They usually consist of a letter or email from the examining attorney requesting clarification or additional information following their review, like a request for more detail on the elements of a design or logo mark. They must be responded to promptly in order for the application to move forward.