Trademark registration led by a former USPTO examiner
A nationwide federal trademark practice built around direct attorney access, former-examiner experience, and a flat fee quoted in writing before filing.
John E. Dugger prepares and files U.S. federal trademark applications for founders, established businesses, and international applicants. Before founding The Branding Iron, he served as a Trademark Examining Attorney at the USPTO, the agency that will examine your application, and he uses that perspective to identify issues before they become refusals.
Built for founders and businesses at different stages.
Founders launching a business
Clearing and filing the name before it appears on a website, packaging, or signage.
Existing businesses filing late
Registering a name that has been in use for some time but was never formally protected.
Businesses expanding into new goods or services
Adding classes as the product or service line grows beyond the original registration.
E-commerce sellers
Protecting a store, product, or brand name used across marketplaces and storefronts.
Service providers
Registering a name used to identify consulting, professional, creative, or software services.
International applicants
Foreign businesses and individuals seeking U.S. federal registration through Section 44 or Madrid Protocol extension.
What’s included, and what isn’t automatic.
Every engagement is confirmed in a written agreement. The summary below describes the firm’s typical registration scope.
What’s included
- Intake and strategy discussion
- Attorney-directed clearance search
- Written risk assessment
- Ownership and filing-basis review
- Goods-and-services drafting
- Specimen review for a use-based filing
- Application preparation and filing
- Routine status monitoring and reporting
- One response to the first non-final USPTO Office Action, whether procedural or substantive
- Ordinary intent-to-use attorney work for the originally engaged mark/classes through registration, including an appropriate Amendment to Allege Use or Statement of Use and up to five permitted extension requests; USPTO fees are additional
What’s not automatically included
- Any later or final Office Action
- Request for reconsideration or TTAB appeal
- Consent or coexistence agreement
- Survey, expert evidence, or unusually extensive third-party evidence project
- Petition to revive, request to divide, or other extraordinary procedural filing
- A response to a refusal arising from an Amendment to Allege Use or Statement of Use
- Substantial corrective specimen or evidence work
- Additional classes, goods, marks, or logo applications beyond the original engagement
- Ownership or mark changes outside ordinary prosecution
- TTAB oppositions or cancellations
- Enforcement against third parties
- International filings outside the U.S. application identified in the engagement
- Post-registration maintenance and renewal filings
The process, step by step.
- Step 1
Intake & conflicts check
Before any substantive work begins, the firm confirms there is no conflict of interest and gathers the information needed to evaluate your mark and business.
- Step 2
Search & legal assessment
John conducts an attorney-directed clearance search and evaluates the results for likelihood-of-confusion and other registrability risk, then provides a written assessment.
- Step 3
Filing strategy
Based on the assessment, John recommends a filing basis (use-based or intent-to-use), an owner, and the classes and goods-and-services language to pursue.
- Step 4
Draft review
You review a draft of the application, including the identification of goods or services and any specimen, before anything is filed.
- Step 5
Signature & filing
Once you approve the draft and sign, John files the application with the USPTO.
- Step 6
Examination
A USPTO examining attorney reviews the application. The firm monitors for developments and reports them to you.
- Step 7
Publication
If the examiner approves the mark, it is published for opposition, giving third parties an opportunity to object before registration.
- Step 8
Registration or Statement of Use stage
A use-based application that clears publication proceeds to registration. An intent-to-use application instead moves to the Statement of Use (or Amendment to Allege Use) stage, where proof of use must be submitted before registration issues.
Use-based vs. intent-to-use.
A trademark application generally proceeds on one of two bases. A use-based application is filed after the mark is already in use in commerce for the goods or services listed, and requires a specimen showing that actual use. An intent-to-use application is filed when you have a good-faith intention to use the mark but are not yet using it, and proof of use is submitted later, through a Statement of Use, or an Amendment to Allege Use if the mark is put into use earlier in the process, before registration can issue.
Choosing the wrong basis, or filing before use actually exists, is one of the more common and avoidable problems John encounters when reviewing applications. Part of the intake and strategy step is confirming which basis accurately reflects your situation.
Intent-to-use filing without surprise attorney bills at each extension stage.
For Full Filing clients, ordinary intent-to-use attorney work for the originally engaged mark and classes is included through registration. That includes preparing the appropriate use filing and, when the launch takes longer, up to five permitted six-month extension requests after the Notice of Allowance. You pay the USPTO fee for each filing, but no additional attorney fee for ordinary ITU prosecution. Petitions, division requests, corrective evidence projects, refusals arising from a use filing, appeals, and other extraordinary issues are separately quoted.
USPTO fees apply to each use or extension filing.
Word mark vs. logo.
A word mark (sometimes called a standard character mark) protects the wording itself, regardless of font, color, or design. A logo or design-plus application protects a specific stylized presentation of a mark, which may include a word, a graphic element, or both, rendered exactly as shown in the drawing filed with the USPTO.
If your brand relies on both a distinctive name and a distinctive visual design, protecting each fully can require separate applications, since a word mark registration and a logo registration protect different things. John discusses which combination makes sense for your business during the strategy step, based on how the mark is actually used.
Pricing, shown before you sign.
The Branding Iron’s attorney fee for a registration engagement starts at $695 per mark, per class. This is separate from the USPTO’s own government filing fee, which is currently $350 per class (as of July 2026), paid directly to the USPTO and generally nonrefundable. A mark filed in two classes, for example, ordinarily carries a $1,390 attorney fee plus the applicable USPTO fees, unless a written quote states otherwise.
A standalone clearance search starts at $295. If you retain the firm for a Full Filing within 30 days after the search assessment, the full search fee will be credited toward the filing attorney fee.
Every engagement is quoted as a flat fee, in writing, before any work begins. See the firm’s full pricing page for a side-by-side breakdown, including what is and is not included at each tier.
Why applications run into trouble.
Drawing on his time as a USPTO examining attorney, John looks for the following issues before an application is filed.
- Similar marks already on the register. A likelihood-of-confusion refusal can arise from marks that are similar, not just identical, in appearance, sound, meaning, or commercial impression.
- Descriptiveness. Wording that merely describes a feature, function, or characteristic of the goods or services can be refused as merely descriptive.
- Genericness. A term that is the common name for the goods or services themselves cannot function as a trademark at all.
- Incorrect owner. Filing in the name of the wrong person or entity is a common and sometimes difficult-to-fix error.
- Specimen problems. A specimen that does not show the mark used in connection with the actual goods or services, or that shows only ornamental or informational use, can draw a refusal.
- Indefinite identifications. Goods-and-services descriptions that are too vague, too broad, or not accepted USPTO wording can be refused or require amendment.
- Filing-basis errors. Filing as use-based before use actually exists, or selecting the wrong basis for the applicant’s situation, can create problems that are harder to correct later than to avoid at filing.
Questions about trademark registration.
Last updated July 2026.
How much does registration cost?
What is a trademark class?
How many classes do I need?
Do I need to be using the name?
Should I file the name or the logo?
How long does registration take?
What happens if the USPTO refuses it?
Is a substantive Office Action response really included?
What intent-to-use work is included?
Is a search fee credited if I proceed with filing?
Can you represent me if I live outside Tennessee?
Does registration guarantee no one else can challenge the mark?
What information do you need to begin?
Discuss your mark with the attorney who will file it.
Tell John what you are building and where you are in the process. You will leave the call with a clear next step and a written flat-fee scope before any work begins.