So you’re thinking about getting a trademark for your business and wondering, “Should I use one of those cheap online services like LegalZoom instead of paying a bunch of money for a trademark attorney?” The answer is maybe, but before you do consider this.
From a business owner standpoint, I get it. We all want to save money. So if I can spend 300 bucks on some online service provider instead of $1,000 on a trademark lawyer, it seems like it makes sense. But there’s a few things that we don’t think about:
First, LegalZoom and other online service providers are not your attorney. They’re just some online warehouse that has you fill out forms and get your trademark thing on file. It’s like the Walmart of legal services, but it’s not a law firm. It’s just an online service. Just think about this: If you’ve been putting all this time, money, energy and effort into building your business and then you have something so important like protecting your name, do you want to trust it to to an only service that doesn’t provide you legal advice or represent you as your attorney?
Thinking about it differently: If you had to get brain surgery, would you go to a brain surgeon or would you go to a cheap online service that will cut your brain out and put a new one in? Of course you would want someone that is trained, held to a code of ethics, and has a duty to serve you. And that’s why working with a trademark attorney is important when compared to a service like LegalZoom. A trademark attorney has your best interest in mind. They file trademarks all the time and know the nuances of the law and they have your best interest in mind as the client as opposed to just one more person filling out some online forms and trying to churn and burn and get them through the system.
Second, what happens if you fill out the form incorrectly or something goes wrong? These online service providers can’t represent you. They’re not attorneys. You then have situation where you paid a bunch of money to fill out this online application. You wait three and a half months. Really it’s not done correctly. You walk into a trademark lawyer’s office like me, I look at the darn thing and say, “Yeah, I can fix it for you, maybe, but it’s going to cost double, triple, or quadruple what you paid online,” and the whole situation turns out being more expensive than if you hired an attorney to help you at the outset.
So, I totally get why you might want to save some money using an online service provider, but it’s probably not good for you, not good for your business, and it may even be more expensive later on down the line when an attorney has to fix these problems.
Now this might be one thing that you’re thinking about when deciding whether and how to get a trademark for your business, but you might have other questions like “what’s the value of a trademark?” or “What happens If don’t get a one?” Well, never fear, we’re here:
Just visit trademarktuesdays.com and you can download our free guide about how to protect and grow your business using trademarks. And in that way, you can make some smart decisions like, oh, I don’t know, hiring trademark lawyer instead of using some cheap online service. So visit trademarktuesdays.com. Get the information you need to make the best decision for you and your business.Should I use an online service like Legal Zoom to get a trademark?
