r/TRADEMARK

So what happened is that I started a brand new channel with the username Emulatrix, with my own designed character called Catt (just like me) and 100% original content, mostly focused on curiosities about videogame consoles, tutorials and gameplays.
The name "Emulatrix" was only used in my channel's username and it was written in the banner, never I even mentioned it in any of my videos or posts.

This name was available in YouTube, Instagram, Tiktok, Discord and many more, so I thought "ok seems like it can be used" right?
Well, after only 2 days of getting the partnership offer from YouTube and being all excited and happy, I get this trademark claim because someone registered "Emulatrix" for a website-project... and they shut down my channel, just like that. Without any given chance of letting me change the username or anything, not even allowing me to start any new channel under my name ever again.

I tried contacting this man over emails and linkedin, but he just keeps ignoring me, I didnt earn anything during this time cus ofc with only 2 days monetizing youtube didnt pay me anything. But now only because of this name issue I have to say goodbye to my dream of working on youtube???

Legal team told me : "We've reviewed your appeal and determined that we're unable to reinstate your content"

So I tried once again kindly asking to review the situation cus this makes NO sense to me. Why wouldI lose everything cus of a name when I didnt even make a single penny from it? And letting them know I was unaware of the existence of this other project under the name and Im 100% willing to change it!

hey, has anyone been filled for a lawsuit for trademark/ copyright for using a brand's logo on f. e., a phone case? recently got a huge email, which looks real, with all of the legal papers for using a trademarked logo. my etsy balance was probably always in the negative, i have made 1 single sale and it was made by the trademark company. the firm demands 1k$ and i get written off, or later they said they could sue me for even 2M. i am a broke student from Europe, and the US is after me? how

I have the name I absolutely want for my new business—it fits in with the brand story perfectly and after months and months of consideration I landed on it. It passes all tests including uspto and domain. However in doing last minute due diligence, I discovered there is a relatively unknown rum company in the United States using the name. I don’t know how I missed it but there it is. AI says even though they’re different categories there’s still a risk of confusion due to the nature of the lifestyle marketplace.

Is this true? Do I have to start over?

Hey everyone,

I’m in the process of trademarking the name for a small business operating in the IP / technical services space and wanted to get some recommendations from people who’ve gone through the process before.

I’ve spent some time reviewing the USPTO resources and noticed they mention that self-filing is possible, but they still strongly recommend working with a U.S.-licensed trademark attorney depending on the situation. Since this is something I’d rather do correctly from the beginning, I’m leaning toward working with someone experienced instead of trying to figure everything out myself.

Does anyone here have recommendations for attorneys or smaller firms that were good to work with, especially for startups or technical businesses?

Not really looking for the large “trademark mill” type services — more interested in someone responsive and knowledgeable who can help avoid mistakes early on.

Appreciate any suggestions or experiences.

I’ve been researching online trademark marketplaces recently (Communer, Trademark Marketplace, US Trademark Exchange, etc.) and honestly the entire space feels oddly stuck in time.

A lot of these platforms look like they were designed 20+ years ago and haven’t evolved much since. The business models also vary wildly:

• listing fees
• commissions on sale
• legal/processing fees
• brokerage add-ons
• transfer fees

Sometimes all of the above.

What surprised me even more is how passive many of these marketplaces seem to be once a trademark is listed.

The listing process itself appears heavily automated and optimized to avoid manual work for platform operators (sometimes it looks like one person can run the whole site). But after submitting a trademark, there often seems to be very little actual marketing happening:

• no visible advertising campaigns
• no startup outreach
• no buyer targeting
• little SEO effort
• almost no social visibility
• little transparency around actual sales volume

In many cases it feels like:
“list it and wait to see if someone eventually finds it.”

The pricing is another interesting aspect. You’ll see trademarks listed anywhere from a few hundred dollars to millions, often without much explanation for the valuation difference besides “premium brand.”

As a seller, it’s also hard to know:

• how many buyers actually browse these platforms
• how many trademarks are successfully sold
• whether inquiries are common or rare
• what conversion rates look like
• how trademarks are actively marketed after listing

The overall impression I get is that many platforms are functioning more like static directories than active marketplaces.

To me, it feels like trademark sales would work better with:

• stronger startup/founder outreach
• modern branding presentation
• AI-generated mockups and visuals
• niche targeting (AI, fintech, ecommerce, etc.)
• LinkedIn/X marketing
• SEO landing pages
• transparent analytics
• curated collections instead of giant databases
• actual brokerage/business development efforts

I also wonder whether using a trademark lawyer or IP law firm to help promote or broker a sale adds any real value today, or whether most of the actual marketing still falls on the seller.

Do lawyers meaningfully help with:

• buyer sourcing
• negotiation leverage
• credibility
• valuation
• legal packaging
• closing larger deals

…or are they mainly useful once a buyer has already been found?

Curious what others here think.

If you were trying to sell a trademark or premium brand name today, how would you approach it?

Would you rely on marketplaces at all, use a trademark lawyer/broker, or focus more on direct outreach and independent marketing?

https://preview.redd.it/5f8tsceaybzg1.png?width=446&format=png&auto=webp&s=2d6fd92621478fe57924af3377767ff585c262f4

Full letter here: https://aboutblaw.com/blEF

Letter also available here: https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2026-05-05-raskin-to-squires-uspto-re-board-of-peace.pdf

Upfront: I'm not selling anything, I'm not launching anything, and this isn't a stealth marketing post.

A little background: I'm an employee (I have a BA in Legal Studies, but not an attorney) for a company who has been deeply involved in trademark registration for their own marks. Having previously used an attorney for filings, the focus shifted to doing it in-house and I have been tasked with this responsibility. Out of that experience, I built an internal AI-powered trademark clearance tool for my own use — purely to help me do better preliminary research before making a decision on whether or not engaging counsel would be needed.

It started as a Google Sheet that displayed all of the mark details, then I added a tool that would connect to the USPTO database and automatically update our current Marks. After that I added a deadline engine that would calculate any upcoming deadline windows (📅 Sec 8 & 15 window opens Oct 17, 2028 (in 895 days) | 📅 Sec 9 Renewal: opens Oct 17, 2032 (in 2356 days) | Reg: Oct 17, 2023) with email reminders. That's when I realized that I really needed to go further because I was presented with a list of about 20 Marks that the company wanted to register, and the list kept growing, currently at about 30. I was also getting email/message requests every time our Product Development team came up with a new name to check it for them.

So I expanded the tool, and in the process, I was re-filing for the Marks that our previous attorney change (moving to in-house with no specific plan) had resulted in lapse of coverage. All while re-filing for marks and expanding the tool, I was made CIPO (Cheif Intellectual Property Officer) for the company allowing me to act directly with USPTO instead of having to forward and reply and reforward documents, etc.

The Tool:

The tool analyzes a proposed mark and produces a structured clearance report covering:

• Likelihood of confusion analysis across relevant classes
• DuPont factor breakdowns
• Identification of potentially conflicting registrations and applications
• Strength/distinctiveness assessment
• A plain-language risk summary

I've been refining the output format and the underlying prompting logic, but I have no way to know how well it holds up against what an actual trademark attorney would consider thorough or useful. That's where I'm hoping someone here might help.

What I'm asking: *NDA's are available*

1. I would really prefer that if any practicing trademark attorney would be willing provide a mark that you have run a clearance search on, either by a service or internally, I will run a search and provide you the report output. If you could review it and tell me where it falls short, over-reaches, misses nuance, or gets things right.
2. If you are not a practicing attorney but you are using a service for clearance searches, I would be willing to run a search on a Mark that you have run through that service and then trade search results.

No sign-ups, no product pitch. Just a guy trying to build something useful for himself and wanting a sanity check from people who actually know this area of law.

If it turns out that the tool is good, even as a starting point for your more in-depth search, I would be willing to give you detailed instructions (limited license) on how to build this so that it would be up and running within a week.

Right now, each search is costing about $1.07 but I am also looking at a few things that could possibly bring that down even more.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to engage.

ETA: This is in the US only.

Say I want a certain username on Instagram for my band for example. The account doesn’t exist that I can see however Instagram says it is not available. It is my understanding I could file a trademark for it and then fill out the form on Instagram in hopes that they will grant me access to the username.

My question is, what would I actually file as a trademark? Do I include a space in the actual trademark since usernames do not allow for spaces? For example if I want to trademark a name like Tarzan Jones, would I file it as “Tarzan Jones” or “tarzanjones”? What category of trademark do you think would be best to file under?

Cheers!

I started my own business a little over a year ago.

I picked a name I thought was cool and also was relatively cheap to buy the .ai domain for.

I recently received a notice letter from a intellectual property law firm letting me know I was committing IP theft because a company named the same name minus the AI- ex: mine company is ACME Ai, there's is ACME.

They filed a trademark on the name in 2020 and have been a company for 12 years so it seems legit.

Is there anything I can do or should I just change my name?

I am not married to the name but the idea of getting a new domain, redoing a lot of my internal banking and back-end sounds like a pain and would rather not have to.

I’ve newly registered my musician name and had an opposition from a toy company stating potential for confusion because my mark is registered in the same classes, even though they sell toys and I sell music and performance services to adults with no intention to create toys or children goods.

They want me to withdraw my application with an undertaking to never register or oppose them in future. My trademark uses accents as a visual distinction rather than pronunciation but I believe they are assuming the pronunciation is the same, even though the spelling of their trademark is different in conjunction with theirs not having accents ^` above letters. However, without them knowing the pronunciation they may assume it is the same sounding name.

My instinct is to not back down, as the two brands are in completely different markets, covering different activities in the classes. I begrudge needing to spend hundreds if this is just an attempt to intimidate me to back down and eliminate any assumed threat. I’ve enquired with firms but had little luck in getting a response in time to respond to their demands in 2 days.

Any advice please?

I engaged a firm to do the search and filing for a mark that has made it through. Now that I’m using it in commerce, I collected specimens to file my SOU. I’ve filed them myself in the past.

I work with a larger firm and I’d like to keep costs down. They are the correspondents on the file. What’s the etiquette on DIYing this? I anticipate needing some additional work from them next year. I’m paid up on my bills with them.

Hey everyone,

I’m starting a clothing brand and planning to register a trademark for the brand name/logo. I’m new to this process, so I’d appreciate some guidance.

\- What is the complete process for trademark registration in India?

\- Can I do it myself or is a lawyer/agent recommended?

\- What documents are required and how much does it usually cost?

\- How much time does the process take, and can I use after applying?

\- Should I trademark only the brand name or the logo as well?

\- How can I check if my brand name is already registered or too similar to another brand?

\- Any common mistakes or important things to know before filing?

Would really appreciate advice from people who’ve already gone through this process. Thanks 🙌

Patent agent here, Applied for a TM for a company I'm an officer for and I'm used to the usual TM scam solicitions but this is next level. Got a call from 571 area code, the caller announced themselves to be USPTO trademark examiners, and give a callback number 571-702-9918 which has the same USPTO answering system announcements and the scammers are actually reachable by name through that system after making touchpad selections.

There are about 9 things that are off that I won't identify, some way goofier than others if you're accustomed to calling the PTO which I won't enumerate because I don't want them to improve their game. One of the things I can mention is that 5 different "trademark examiners from the USPTO" have called about this trademark app filed less than 24 hours ago, they read back the public filing contents as part of building the confidence part of the con, I guess assuming the filer is unaware it's public when filed.

But, despite the scam, I have to momentarily enjoy living in the fantasy world where a call comes from the USPTO about anything less than a day after filing it (I spent 3 hours on hold with the actual PTO about an obscure patent matter yesterday, so at least I can enjoy the fantasy of an instantly responsive USPTO)... When I ask if they're offering legal services, they say no, they're trademark examiners. No idea what their scam is, but I end these types of calls asking if their family is proud of them scamming people, and encouraging them to find honest work instead of their scam.

I have filed a word mark application in the UK for my companies name and also intend to file in the US. Unfortunately as I went through the process I realised that I need an attorney to file this for me as neither myself nor my company is US domiciled.

Is there any attorneys that will only charge for filing the application? I have already done PTSO searches and I am confident that there is no competing trade marks out there.

Can I also ask if it is possible to handle any responses myself once the application is submitted or does this all have to go through a US attorney as I am not US domiciled?

Hi all, just looking for some advice on Trade marking a clothing brand.

We own a clothing brand that we want to launch soon, with a four letter brand name. Let's just call it FOUR for example. We own www.fourstore.com to operate under, with matching socials, but with the brand visuals, story and so on firmly sitting at FOUR.

But for our trademark, I notice in class 25 (clothing class), there are a few already coexisting registered marks in there with the same name.

1. A musician has an alter ego that that they use under the name, for releasing merch including t-shirts. Although, they have 4-5 alter egos and their main brand is their full name which they primarily operate under. Additionally, their shop has a FOUR section, but no products available.

2. A globally operating clothing and accessories brand has a line of shoe products named "FOUR", but only their parent brand name is used on the actual shoes. They use the FOUR name only as a model name on their site and so on, not physically. They sall all sorts of clothes, shoes and accessories, but only this shoe line uses the brand name we have too.

3. There's a small uk based niche construction industry brand with one safety wearable item that for some reason has the name we want on them. This is just an accessory, not their company brand name or on any of their other products. But it is a wearable item and it does feature the name, although as FO.UR.

Then there's around 3 or so other registered marks with variations of our name like FO . UR, FO.UR or FO-UR.

_

So, as a full on clothing brand for us coming into this, would we be hard pressed applying for this name in this class?

Should we add a second word to our brand name, we own a good .com in this scenario, and then focus on trying to build on that first name within it and try to secure the sole word as the brand over time?

I appreciate this is a long post and also it may be hard to say for anyone without seeing specific brands/registrations, but would love to hear from anyone knowledgeable in this area or who has gone through this process too!