Check out the Frequently Asked Questions below.Email us at info@thehawklegal.com with additional questions.
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About The Hawk Legal Collective
The Hawk Legal Collective is a boutique law firm that helps entertainers, entrepreneurs, and individuals protect and grow their businesses. The Hawk Legal Collective prides itself on strategically assisting its clients to turn ideas into actual business implementation.
We Must Strategize To Monetize!
Question: How long does the process take? Can I expedite my order for faster service? How will I know when you’ve filed my trademark application?
Answer: Our law firm is a small boutique law firm. There are times we get extremely busy. We try to provide 7 business days turnaround time. However, it could take as long as or longer than two weeks to inform you of your first major status change, which could mean we have completed a search, your trademark application has been filed, or we may need more information to move to the next step. For packages that include a search, after consent, we aim to file the application within 14 business days. After we’ve filed, we will email you to let you know, with proof-of-filing attached.
If you need the application filed immediately, choose any of our packages and add our expedited filing option for $100 for our Entry package or $200 for our Elevated and Complete packages by contacting the firm.
Once the application is submitted, we should hear an initial answer from the USPTO after four (4) months. If everything goes right, you should have a fully registered trademark in 9 to 12 months, at which point you can stop using the TM symbol and start using the ® symbol next to your brand.
What are the terms of the Engagement Agreement?
What if I only want a search, without the filing and monitoring?
We offers the option to only hire us for a search (and the accompanying legal opinion) for $300.
Do I need any documents in order to file?
No, most of our clients do not need to have any documents ready. While, business formation documents or sales invoices are not necessary to register a trademark in the US, they can be helpful for us to paint an overall picture of the business, brand, and mark. If we do need any documents from you, we’ll ask you for them after you’ve retained us.
Should I bother paying for a search? I already checked and my name isn’t taken.
How long does a trademark last? Do I have to renew it?
What forms of payment do you accept?
We accept credit/debit card. If you would like to pay by another method, please contact the office at 404-439-9310.
Should I file a trademark application as an individual or as an LLC?
You can file as individual or an LLC. There are some advantages to filing with an LLC or other business entity listed as the owner of the trademark. Filing with a business entity is helpful because you won’t have to re-assign ownership of the trademark if you sell the business.
Filing as a business entity is also good for individuals who do not wish for their personal details to be made public to companies who will attach the trademark to an individual name for purposes of selling their services.
We offer fast business formation services if you are interested in forming a U.S. LLC or corporation. As soon as you’ve requested an entity formation from us, you may then list that entity’s details on your trademark questionnaire.
If you wish to assign/transfer the rights of your trademark later on, we charge $250 to draft and customize a trademark assignment document for you and record it with the USPTO, plus a $50 filing fee per trademark.
Do you really answer the phone?
Yes. Call us at (404) 439-9310. However, our business model primarily involves communicating by email, so that’s our preferred method of communication whenever possible. Most attorneys love speaking on the phone because they bill their clients for the time spent on the phone. On the other end of the spectrum, “legal services” companies don’t charge for phone calls because they have underpaid, under-qualified customer service representatives answering their phones.
We hope that clients understand that we are able to keep our fees low because we’ve managed to digitize the majority of our registration process. If we are having trouble returning your call because we have a crazy week full of deadlines, we encourage you to email us.
Should I pick the Complete package or the Elevated package? What is a “legal brief that might be needed to overcome a substantive USPTO Office Action”? What is a “substantive” or “non-substantive” Office Action?
Can I upgrade from the Elevated package to the Complete package if you tell me we’re likely to get a substantive Office Action after you perform your search?
Yes, but it will be a little more expensive than if you had gotten the Complete package from the start. To upgrade after we’ve given you legal advice about your mark, let us know. We will send you an online invoice for $600, which includes the $500 fee difference plus a $100 upgrade charge.
Note that this upgrade option is not available once the USPTO has issued a substantive Office Action against the application (most commonly this means an Office Action refusing registration because of a likelihood of confusion with an existing mark or mere descriptiveness of the words in the mark). At that point, the full cost will be required if you want us to draft and file a legal brief to attempt to overturn a substantive Office Action. At the moment, our fee for this is $1500.00.
Should I register my name in plain text or should I register my logo? What if I want to trademark both? What if my logo has my name in it?
Filing both a name/word mark and a logo requires two separate applications, but Hawk Legal only charges an additional $225 legal fee on top of extra $275 filing fee, as long as the name and logo are for the same brand, meaning that if you want to trademark both the name and logo, you will need to pay an additional $500 in total if you’re registering your trademark for one class of goods/services.
For most businesses, the most important thing to trademark is their name in plain text. Registering the logo should usually be done as a separate trademark application. Technically you can save money and protect both your name and logo by registering the logo if it contains the name in it, but this is not recommended because if you ever change the design of your logo, you will risk losing your federal protection for the name.
What if I pay for Elevated or Complete package, but I don’t end up filing a trademark for whatever reason?
If you change your mind about filing a trademark application after we perform a conflict search for you, you are entitled to a partial refund. For the Value package, we will keep $299 for the conflict search and will refund the remaining professional and filing fees to you. For the Safe package, we will keep $449. Any additional filing fees paid to add logos or goods/services classes on will also be refunded. If you ordered the trademark document bundle, the fee will not be refunded. If you paid $200 for an expedited Value or Safe package, you’ll get $100 of that back.
What if I want to file trademark applications for more than one brand? Do you offer bulk pricing?
Can you file trademarks for Amazon sellers?
Yes. It’s important for Amazon sellers to register their brands as trademarks.
Can I file for more than one class of goods/services? Should I?
Are there any hidden costs in addition to the fees listed on your website?
If you want to file for products in more than one class of good, you’ll have to pay an additional $350 filing fee per class. One class is generally enough for most small businesses.
In addition, if you are not using the brand in commerce for all of the products on your application on the day we file, we will have to file under an Intent-to-Use basis. This means that if the application is successful, you will have to pay a $250 filing fee ($100 government fee plus $150 fee for processing and time spent) per good/service class near the end of the application process in order to complete registration. If you are already using the brand name or logo in commerce when we file, you will not have to pay this fee.
If you want us to use a foreign trademark application or registration as the basis for registering our application here in the United States, we charge an additional fee of $50 per class because of the additional time we need to spend on such applications making sure the goods/services identifications are altered to be compatible with the U.S. Trademark Identification Manual.
Note that none of our packages cover litigation costs if a third party opposes the application or sends a cease-and-desist letter because of the application. We handle some initial communication with third party opposers, but beyond that, we will have to charge our hourly rate of $250, billed in fifteen-minute increments of an hour. We will warn you and get your consent before charging our hourly rate. None of our packages cover formal appeals before the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board either, in the event that our argument against an Office Action is rejected.
What is Phresh Elevation Watch membership?
Phresh Elevation Watch is a subscription service we offer through which you can have us monitor the USPTO database for new submissions that resemble your trademark, and alert you when we find something objectionable. If you order our Complete package, a one-year Phresh Elevation Watch membership is included for free. This membership is not tied to the trademark application you hire us to file. You may choose any mark for us to monitor, at any time, regardless of the status of the application you hired us to file
Where are you licensed as an attorney? Can you represent me?
The Principal attorney, Naja I. Hawk, is licensed to practice law in Georgia but we represent clients from all over the United States. The location of your attorney doesn’t affect your trademark filing.
Do I need to submit a specimen showing use of my trademark in commerce? What if I’m not selling the product yet?
If you are already using the trademark in commerce, we can find your website or online listing ourselves and take a screenshot as proof of use. In the rare scenario where we fail to find this proof, we will ask you for a photograph of your product or advertising materials.
If you are not using the trademark in commerce yet, and our trademark application is successful, we will have to file a follow-up specimen several months after filing, which will cost $250 per good/service class ($100 government fee plus our $150 fee for payment processing and time spent) to file. If you are not using the mark in commerce yet for your goods/services within six months of receiving approval from the USPTO (called a Notice of Allowance), you can get up to five six-month extensions of time, for $200 each ($125 for the government fee plus $75 for payment processing and time spent) per class.
When can I use the TM and ® symbols? Am I protected during the application process?
The TM symbol can be used whenever you want (even before filing a trademark application). The TM symbol simply means that you consider yourself to have “common law” rights to your trademark, and it has very little legal significance. We help you to get the ® symbol. This is a symbol of protection in the U.S. You can only use the ® symbol next to your trademark when it is federally registered.
During the process, while you are not fully protected until you’ve reached registration, starting the day you file your trademark application you receive benefits. Your application will have priority over any trademark application that has a later filing date. Also, once your mark is registered, you will have retroactive trademark protection. So if anybody starts using a mark that infringes on yours, you can file a cease & desist going back to the day you filed your application. It doesn’t matter if they started using it before your actual registration.
I’m a citizen or business of a foreign country and I don’t have an address in the United States. Can I still apply for a U.S. trademark?
