Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Help Yourself By Hiring A Trademark Lawyer

By Rex Stevenson


Trademark lawyers are the ones responsible with legal matters concerning intellectual property rights. In other words, they handle matters that concern trademark law and trademark practice. In order to become a trademark lawyer, a person must pass specialized examinations. This is necessary to ensure that the person has the knowledge and the ethics to perform trademark registrations.

In some regions lawyers have to meet some requirements to become trademark lawyers. They get exclusive or protected title in places like New Zealand, United Kingdom, and Australia. Lawyers from the United States, however, don't need to have that special examination. All they need to know is the laws concerning trademark registration and also have full knowledge about the procedure's steps. They are very useful when people want to register their trademarks because they can offer advice during the registration and make things work smoother. The roles of trademark attorneys are stated as follows:

1. The trademark lawyer should give advice to the client concerning the chosen trademark. Trademark lawyers also obtain search reports that link to your trademark. After all examination is done, the lawyer should confirm whether your trademark is safe or not. The lawyer is also obliged to answer any questions and inform his clients about fees, trademark process and trademark approval.

2. One of the most important things which concern trademark application is drafting. Also, lawyers should pay attention to the description you made for your product because it has a big influence in the whole process.

3. After you finish your application, the lawyer must examine it and be sure that it contains all the necessary files. They must also examine the drawing page and the designs to make sure that they get approved by the USPTO.

4. A trademark lawyer must be able to communicate well with the USPTO. This is essential when answering any objections from the USPTO lawyer regarding your trademark application. Your lawyer must write briefs which address the initial objections upon trademark registration.

5. Another responsibility of the trademark lawyer is making sure that you are well informed and well advised about everything. You should have knowledge about trademark fees, the procedure of getting your trademark registered, searching your trademark online, etc.

6. A trademark lawyer should be prepared for any difficult situations, like receiving desist and cease letter. This happens if somebody thinks that you have stolen their trademark. Your lawyer should help you solve any problems like this.

There are many resources wherein you can look for the lawyer's names such as online directories and yellow pages. You can also ask your friends to find a good lawyer. But besides your effort, you failed, then it is recommended to visit the referral services of the state bar lawyers. Finding a trademark lawyer is easy but to find the best needs more effort and time. If you get a lawyer who is a beginner or never practices his field of specialization for quite sometime, then expect that your case is a gamble. A new lawyer is still unstable and is not be good enough to handle tough cases.

You can ask the help of a lawyer whom you trust to find the best trademark lawyer. The importance never solely lies on the lawyer's name but on the quality of services he can provide. A trademark lawyer is in a good position to be confident enough that your case is well handled as expected. Try finding a trademark lawyer in your area who has the skills in handling trademark related cases. If the lawyer rejects to handle your case, he could probably suggest another good lawyer perhaps.

Do not forget that lawyers should receive "referral fees" to become motivated. This is a very popular method to ensure that your lawyer will give 100% for your case. Before starting anything just ask your lawyer if he will ask for referral fees. Hiring a good lawyer is a hard job but not impossible. Make sure that your lawyer is good to successfully accomplish the first steps needed for a popular and respected company.

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