The Law Office of John R. Nelson, P.A. is a Florida-based trademark law practice serving business owners, startups, and brand owners throughout Florida and across the United States. Based in New Smyrna Beach and serving clients in Daytona Beach, Orlando, and throughout the state, our practice is focused on federal trademark registration with the USPTO.
We understand that securing a strong trademark is crucial for establishing and protecting your brand identity. Our mission is to provide clear, affordable legal solutions to businesses of all sizes. Whether you're launching a new product, expanding your brand, or responding to a USPTO office action, we're here to guide you through every step of the trademark registration process. Start your Florida trademark application today and protect your valuable brand.
The federal trademark registration process involves filing your application with the USPTO, responding to any office actions from the examining attorney, and paying the registration fees. As your Florida trademark attorney, we handle all aspects of this process.
A federal trademark registration runs for ten years at a time and can be renewed indefinitely, so long as you continue to use the mark in commerce and file each required maintenance document with the USPTO on time. Miss one of those filings and the registration can be cancelled or expire, no matter how long you have owned it. The filings themselves, and the window for each, are listed in the next question.
For a registration based on a U.S. application, two filings are required to keep it alive. First, a Section 8 declaration of use is due between the fifth and sixth year after registration. Second, a combined Section 8 and Section 9 declaration of use and renewal application is due between the ninth and tenth year, and again every ten years after that. Separately, a Section 15 declaration of incontestability is optional: it may be filed within one year after the end of a five-year period of continuous use of the mark following registration. Skipping the Section 15 declaration costs you incontestable status, not the registration itself. A registration obtained through the Madrid Protocol is maintained instead by a Section 71 declaration of use on a similar schedule, and renewal itself is handled at WIPO rather than the USPTO (37 C.F.R. 7.41). Our Florida trademark law office can help you calendar and file each one.
Often, yes. Federal registration can be based on actual use in commerce or on a bona fide intent to use, and documented use may support a claim of acquired distinctiveness for a descriptive mark. Whether a particular mark can register still depends on distinctiveness and on any earlier conflicting rights, and no lawyer can promise a particular outcome at the USPTO. A Florida trademark attorney can help you document your use and prepare an application on the appropriate filing basis.
Our Florida trademark attorney provides comprehensive trademark services from initial clearance searches through federal registration and enforcement. We handle all aspects of your USPTO trademark application and ongoing brand protection needs.
We conduct thorough searches of USPTO records, state registrations, and common law uses to identify potential conflicts before you invest in your brand.
Complete preparation and filing of your federal trademark application, including proper identification of goods/services and specimens of use.
We prepare and file legal responses to trademark office actions, including refusals based on likelihood of confusion, descriptiveness, and specimen issues.
Ongoing trademark monitoring for potential infringers, cease-and-desist letter drafting, and negotiations to protect your registered trademark.
Read reviews from businesses whose trademarks we've helped protect.
The Law Office of John R. Nelson, P.A. focuses on intellectual property law, with particular emphasis on federal trademark registration and brand protection. As a registered patent attorney who handles trademark matters before the USPTO, John helps Florida businesses and entrepreneurs protect and enforce their intellectual property rights by guiding them through the USPTO trademark application process, conducting comprehensive clearance searches, drafting legal documents, and representing clients in trademark prosecution and enforcement matters.
Files federal trademark applications, conducts comprehensive clearance searches, and prepares office action responses before the USPTO.
Transparent flat-fee pricing for trademark registration, with no hourly billing for the work listed below.
For a single-class federal application, including the $350 USPTO filing fee for one class.
$1,600 flat fee for a single-class federal application. Additional classes, substantive Office Action responses, Statements of Use, and opposition proceedings are quoted separately, in writing, before any work begins.
Office action responses are quoted on a case-by-case basis depending on the complexity of the issues raised by the USPTO examiner.
Additional Classes: Need to protect your trademark in more than one class of goods/services? Additional classes are $350 each (the USPTO filing fee), and the attorney time for each additional class is quoted separately, in writing, before any work begins. Schedule your consultation — $50 for 20 minutes, always credited toward your flat fee — to discuss your specific needs.
In order to obtain a federal trademark registration with the USPTO, you need to understand these key requirements. Our Florida trademark practice runs clearance searches, prepares and files USPTO applications, assembles specimens, tracks each deadline, and responds to office actions.
Your trademark must be unique and distinctive in the marketplace. The USPTO will refuse registration if your mark is merely descriptive of your goods or services, or if it's too similar to an existing registered trademark. Strong trademarks are suggestive, arbitrary, or fanciful. Generic terms cannot be registered as trademarks. A Florida trademark attorney can help you evaluate whether your proposed mark is distinctive enough for federal registration.
To register a trademark based on actual use, you must actually use the trademark in commerce to identify and distinguish your goods or services. For goods, this means the mark must appear on the product, packaging, or labels. For services, the mark must be used in the sale or advertising of your services. A use-based application requires actual use in commerce, so merely intending to use the mark, or using it only internally, will not support one. If you are not using the mark yet, the alternative is a separate filing basis: a Section 1(b) intent-to-use application, which you may file if you have a bona fide intent to use the mark in commerce and which registers only after you later file an acceptable Statement of Use.
A specimen is evidence that shows how you actually use your trademark in commerce. For goods, acceptable specimens include photographs of the product with the mark, labels, tags, or packaging showing the mark. For services, specimens can include website screenshots, advertisements, brochures, or signage showing the mark used in connection with the services. The specimen must show the mark as it actually appears in use, not just as a logo on a white background. Many trademark applications receive office actions due to improper specimens, so working with a Florida trademark attorney can help ensure you submit appropriate specimens from the start.
The USPTO trademark registration process typically takes roughly 10 to 12 months from filing to registration, assuming no office actions or oppositions. After filing, your application receives a serial number immediately on electronic submission, and the USPTO's official filing receipt follows within a few days. An examining attorney will review your application in about 4 to 5 months. If the examining attorney issues an office action, the response period depends on how the application was filed: for applications filed under Section 1 or Section 44, you have three months to respond, extendable once by three months for an additional fee, while applications filed under Section 66(a) through the Madrid Protocol have a six-month response period that cannot be extended (37 CFR 2.62(a)). After approval, the mark is published for opposition for 30 days. If no opposition is filed, a use-based application proceeds to registration; an intent-to-use application first receives a Notice of Allowance and registers only after you file an acceptable Statement of Use. A Florida trademark attorney can track each of these deadlines, prepare the filings the USPTO requires at every stage, and respond to office actions.
You can file a trademark application yourself. An attorney can run a clearance search to identify potential conflicts before you file, classify your goods and services, prepare specimens that meet USPTO requirements, and respond to office actions. No lawyer can promise a particular outcome at the USPTO. The USPTO's own guidance notes that hiring an attorney may save you money over the life of an application. Our flat-fee pricing is designed to make that work predictable for businesses of all sizes.
Tell us about the mark you want to register. A few quick questions about your business and your mark let us reply with useful next steps. Submitting this form does not create an attorney-client relationship.
318 Palmetto Street, New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168
+1 386-256-8537
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