Trademark Plus Reviews – Is It Legit or Scam?
This is an in-depth Trademark Plus review that enlightens you on everything you need to know about this brand, including how it works, pricing, pros & cons, best alternative, etc.
Let’s dive in!
What is Trademark Plus?
Trademark Plus is a firm that specializes in registering trademarks. They can help you register your business’s name, slogan, logo, or color as a trademark. This gives you full ownership over that mark and the right to file for infringement.
Just like Trademark Engine and LegalZoom, they always make the top 15 list of popular trademark firms. But are they convincing enough for you to invest your heart-earned money?
Time to find out!
Trademark Plus boosts registering your trademark in three steps. And they don’t lie about that. To begin filing your trademark application at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), you have to purchase a plan.
Next, they use a mimicked USPTO trademark application form to collect the necessary information for your trademark. After that, they conduct a search and file your application electronically with your consent.
Easy peasy, right? Well, many people would think otherwise.
Trademark Plus’ ratings indeed look good on paper. Plus, they are often ranked among major competitors. But when it comes to real-life experiences, Trademark Plus is fast accumulating negative reviews.
Tons of people are complaining about how horrifying their customer service is. Even though they proclaimed a fast delivery time, clients would find themselves emailing. Emails that would eventually take a week to be responded to.
Trademark Plus’ trademark service fees are competitive and may be affordable if you are on a budget. But on the flip side, they are not a legal firm. This means that they will not stick up for you if you have any legal issues with your trademark.
And again, there is a high chance that an attorney won’t review your trademark application. If you would like that, you will have to pay heavily for it. If you can’t afford a plan that incorporates an attorney’s help, know that any mistakes in your application will be filed without any correction.
If eventually your application gets approved and your trademark is registered by the USPTO, take a moment to celebrate — yay! But note that the process hasn’t ended yet, you still have to pay for your certificate.
There are many more reasons why you should stay away from Trademark Plus, and I will get there soon.
How Does Trademark Plus Work?
Trademark Plus claims to register your trademark in three steps; that we don’t argue about.
1. Step 1: Introduce Your Trademark
After choosing the mark that best describes your business, the first step is introducing your trademark. You can find a contact on their website and put a call across to a representative who will guide you through the process.
In the first step of the registration process, you will have to complete your trademark application questionnaire. Trademark Plus assures it takes only about 5 minutes to complete.
2. Step 2: Search for Clearance
After completing your trademark questionnaire, Trademark Plus will do a search for clearance. This is the stage where you sit and wait for a report.
The search for clearance is a comprehensive trademark search that would try to dig up similar trademarks. Finding an existing trademark that is similar to yours is a red flag. This means that if your application gets filed without going through a correction process, it will be rejected by the USPTO.
This step lets you find out if you need to change your mark or not. If all things are good, then Trademark Plus moves your application to the next step.
3. Step 3: Filing your Application
After a comprehensive trademark search is done and you have been handed a report, the next step is filing your application. Your trademark application will be filed with the USPTO electronically.
You will also need to review and sign your application through the link Trademark Plus will send to your email. Reviewing your application before signing it will give you a second chance to make sure everything is appropriate.
During this process, you will also have to make a $250 or $350 payment to the USPTO. The USPTO usually takes about 3 – 6 months to review trademark applications and give feedback.
How Much Does Trademark Plus Cost?
Trademark Plus offers two pricing packages to choose from the Standard package and the Attorney-Led package.
1. Standard Package
The standard package is the least and it goes for $199, including federal fees. With this package, after completing your application questionnaire, you stand to get an in-depth federal trademark search.
The in-depth federal trademark search searches for all marks that are similar to yours. This could include marks that have a similar sound, spelling, or translation to your mark. After the search is done, you will be sent a report to review and make changes where applicable.
As budget-friendly as this might look, this package does not pose the right option. Why’s that? The answer is clear — you will have no help from a trademark attorney. Unless you have a trademark attorney, if you purchase this package, you will be making unprofessional decisions.
Although we have established the fact that Trademark Plus is not a legal firm, this package makes it obvious.
In summary, what this package does for you is collect your completed questionnaire, make a search, ask you to do with the report as you please, and file whatever you think is right for your trademark.
2. Attorney-Led Package
The Attorney-Led package is the best and it costs $500 but you can get a discount price of up to $300. Federal fees are also included.
This package offers everything in the Standard package but this time around, Trademark Plus partners with an attorney. After a comprehensive trademark search, an attorney will be available to review your application and search report.
Having a trademark attorney help you out increases your chances of having your trademark registered. Just as exciting as that sounds, the cost of this package can be a turn-off for some people.
And the biggest problem with this plan is that the 3rd-party attorney will only help when filing your trademark application, any further legal issues you encounter or any request from USPTO about your mark is no longer the business of the attorney.
So not also recommended!
Trademark Plus Reviews from Previous Customers
Here are what customers of Trademark Plus are saying.
A Trademark Plus review by Elanie 👎:
A Trademark Plus review by Bob 👎:
Sometimes I don’t blame companies like Trademark Plus for whatever they do, I blame people that thinks they can get professional services for cheap price.
Why I Don’t Recommend Trademark Plus Services?
For some people, Trademark Plus offers excellent trademark services while for others like myself, they don’t. And if you are wondering why, check out the reasons I don’t recommend Trademark Plus Services.
1. No Legal Backup
Of course, Trademark Plus (in their most expensive plan) partners with attorneys to help you prepare and file your trademark application. However, they do not own any legal team that will give you legal protection if you ever get sued for trademark infringement or other issues arises.
Also, they will not help you pursue a lawsuit against someone who is infringing upon your trademark. It is important to keep in mind that they are NOT a legal firm and they do not have any legal team. Instead, they partner with attorneys who render services like a third party.
Services that only include helping you research, review, and prepare your trademark application. So, if you ever face problems that would require an attorney to defend you, you will have to sort that out yourself..
This means you will need to hire an attorney who will offer you full service in that regard. This is a big deal-breaker in my book because you are likely going to need the support of an attorney at some point.
2. No Trademark Search Opinions
When doing a trademark search, you are likely to get over a hundred pages of hits. Those hits or raw data that you get in return show you similar marks that are in existence.
A lot of times, people don’t know what to do with the tons of search returns they get from trademark searches and would like an opinion from a professional. Unfortunately, Trademark Plus does not offer any legal opinion.
This means that you will likely be getting your trademark search report as it is. Without an opinion from a professional, you would be staring at a bunch of data like a 6-year-old trying to read a chemistry textbook.
Going through a trademark search report which spans over a hundred pages is time-consuming and stressful. Duh, isn’t it supposed to be included in the payment plans?
Without an opinion from a trademark attorney, you might end up making the wrong decision since you weren’t cut out for the job in the first place.
Remember, Trademark Plus only partners with an attorney to push your trademark registration. Any additional help you need will require you to buy a different service or hire an attorney.
I would have loved it if their trademark service covers every help you will need before and after registering your mark without paying any extra fee. This would have made them more recommendable. But no worries, I will introduce you to a better alternative soon.
3. Office Action Cost Additional Fees
It’s likely to receive a response from the USPTO requesting additional information or pointing out a problem in your trademark application. Unfortunately, Trademark Plus trademark registration service does not include responding to office actions.
This means that if you ever get stuck because the USPTO is asking you for additional information or to fix something in your application, Trademark Plus will not cover you with its trademark package.
However, they do have an Office Action Response package that costs about $100. This makes their trademark services to become more expenses because the chances of needing to respond to an office action are high.
USPTO, in most cases, usually needs more information about a brand before trademarking it. In this scenario, you will end up purchasing one of the Trademark Plus Office Action Response packages or hiring an attorney.
However, other trademark firms have this covered in their trademark services without charging additional fees.
Best Trademark Plus Alternative: Trademark Factory
I think it’s pretty clear that if you are serious about your business, you need more than what Trademark Plus have to offer. And if you need a better alternative that’s solid in areas Trademark Plus is lacking, I highly recommend Trademark Factory.
Trademark Factory’s mission is to help growth-minded entrepreneurs build amazing brands. Thing is, you can’t build an amazing brand unless you OWN the brand you’re building. And the only way to own your brand is to trademark it.
And if you are wondering why Trademark Factory is worth checking out, here are a few reasons:
1. All-Inclusive Service
There is a quote from Charles Manson that says, “If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy.” And I strongly believe Trademark Factory follows this wholeheartedly.
Trademark Factory’s legal team and advisors take care of all your trademark processes. Their experienced attorneys and trademark agents won’t let you break a sweat or worry about anything. You will only be contacted when necessary for some required information or document.
After sharing the necessary information with the team, they go on to draft and file your application. All necessary legal requirements will be met for your trademark to be registered.
To me, this is what makes them unique. Once you choose to work with them, it’s a 100% done-for-you service. Just sit back and watch your brand get trademarked without paying any additional fee.
To be clear, you will get all the services with Trademark Plus on Trademark Factory but with only a one-time fee. No recurring payment!
2. One Flat Fee
One thing that makes Trademark Factory stand out is its one flat fee. Other trademark firms will likely charge you per hour and demand another payment if an objection is raised against your application or further actions need to be taken by them.
But with Trademark Factory, you only need to make a one-time payment, which covers the cost of the Trademarking process from start to finish. Even if your brand trademarking process requires a full legal team, you won’t be charged an hourly rate.
Trademark Factory does not incur hidden costs or other demands for payment. No matter how many objections are raised against your application, additional payment will not be incurred.
For the records, and depending on the plan you paid for, your one-time fee should include a comprehensive trademark search, application filing, response to all office actions, etc.
Most of the services you will get with one payment on Trademark Factory are charged individually or hourly by other trademark firms.
3. Guaranteed Results
Trademark Factory has a 99.3% success rate. This means that there is a high chance that your brand will be trademarked. But if things should swing sideways, they follow a 100% money-back guarantee policy.
So, if you don’t get what you paid Trademark Factory for, you will get a full refund even after the rigorous process the legal team has gone through.
The refund could come in two ways. You can get a full refund before filing. This means if Trademark Factory identifies any problem with trademarking your brand after you already paid, you will get a 100% refund Or they keep searching until they help you find a brand you can own.
They also offer a full refund after filing. So after their comprehensive search, if they find your brand suitable for trademarking and they filed it but get disapproved by the Trademarks office, you get your full refund, regardless of how many office actions they have responded to.
And because they have been in operation for over 9 years, and filled 2885 trademarks with over 99 success rates, you can be rest assured they will deliver on their promises.
4. Large Team
Another reason to trust Trademark Factory is the fact that they have a huge team. They are currently over 30 team members working in this firm, with each proving their expertise in different areas.
This means you will get the right specialist to work on different aspects of your brand trademarking process. This is why Trademark Factory can handle all the activities themselves; because they have a complete team.
5. Free Call with a Specialist
Finally, unlike many trademark firms that are only after your money, Trademark Factory will require to know more about your business before they decide you are a great fit for them.
You will first need to request a free call with one of their advisors (click here to request the call), who will try to understand your business goal and then recommend the best package for you. This free consultation will also shed more light on certain things you don’t know about your business model.
This is completely risk-free, so I see no reason why you won’t request a free call now. (click here to request the call now) or read an in-depth Trademark Factory Review here to know how they work.
Conclusion
I believe this Trademark Plus review has cleared your doubt about this trademark service brand. By now, you already know why you shouldn’t use it.
Since your trademark is a very crucial part of your business, you need to do it perfectly or run into some serious issues in the future.
This is why I recommend Trademark Factory over Trademark Plus since the former not only help you register your trademark but also provides you with a full legal team that defends your trademark when the need arises.
Want to get started with Trademark Factory? (click here to request a call with one of their advisors)