Trademarkia Tries to Simplify the Trademark Application Process

Trademarkia is a relatively new legal service provider with big ambitions. Launched in 2009, the service aims to streamline the trademark application process and make obtaining a trademark as easy as getting a domain name. Based on founders Raj Abhyanker and Dongzia Liu?s estimated 13,000 application filings for this year, it seems like they are well on their way to reaching that goal.

The beauty of Trademarkia lies in its searching platform, which bootstraps itself onto the USPTO trademark database. Anybody who has every used the USPTO site knows that it can be extremely cumbersome ? the design looks like a 12-year old?s Geocities site from 1995, information is hard to find, and beginners need to read an instruction manual just to figure out what all the terms and codes mean. Trademarkia brings the USPTO?s website into the modern world by creating an attractive and easy to use interface that makes searching for trademarks a breeze, and the price of $159 + government fees is very competitive.

So is it possible to really make the trademark application process as easy as getting a web domain? Maybe. Trademarkia?s basic $159 registration package covers just that ? the registration. Filers will be refunded if there is a direct conflict with the mark they are attempting to register, but this service doesn?t provide users with any additional legal guidance. For $499, users can have an attorney discuss strategy with them and fully manage their case; however, this still only applies to the registration process.

The Trademarkia registration service only searches through the USPTO database of federally pending and registered marks, which misses state registrations, common law references, and domain names ? all of which may be used by a third party to establish a legal claim to the mark Trademarkia users are attempting to register. For an additional $699, Trademarkia provides a professional US trademark search that covers the federal register plus common law uses of marks, and then provides users with a detailed report of the results (by comparison, Thomson offers searches for around $670 and Legal Zoom has comprehensive searches for $299-499).

In total, if users want the kind of full-service trademark registration needed to ensure the strongest rights possible and reduce the likelihood that they will infringe other marks, it will costs around $1200 + government fees. Is this revolutionary? No. The services being offered cost more than LegalZoom, but probably less than the same service at a ?BigLaw? firm. Does it streamline the application process, making obtaining a trademark as easy as a web domain? Maybe. The user interface at Trademarkia is pretty fantastic, and it certainly helps to demystify the process for applicants without legal backgrounds; however, I think the bare-bones $159 service runs the risk of oversimplification by turning a process conferring national legal rights on words, symbols, etc., into a registration mill.

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