Even though the number of trademark attorneys is few, there are enough to make yourself wonder: How am I supposed to know if I’m working the best? How many years of experience does the trademark lawyer have? Does it matter where they are location? For example, if you’re in San Francisco, can you only contact a trademark lawyer San Francisco?

When evaluating potential candidates, there are several factors to be considered. After all, you’re going to that person with a high level of responsibility, so you might as well ensure that the trademark attorney is one of the best, if not the best. 

Choosing a trademark attorney isn’t easy, but if you know the right questions to ask, you should be able to hire a highly skilled and competent one. With that said, here are the top 4 questions to ask before you hire a trademark lawyer.

• How Much Experience Do You Have Working In Trademark Law?

You realize the importance of trademarks for your company or business, but you don’t have the knowledge to do it on your own, which is why you need to hire a trademark lawyer who specializes in this particular field. 

With that said, your top priority is to find a lawyer who’s equipped with knowledge and experience in trademark law. Make sure to question and assess their experience in major international markets such as the United States. To do that, you should ask a prospective candidate directly about their experience level when it comes to trademark law, how many years of experience do they have, and if they specialize in it? 

Once they answer those questions, you should follow up with another question asking about examples of previous clients that they’ve worked together with and were they successful with registering previous trademarks for these previous clients in the past? 

These questions should be able to provide you with helpful information on who are you going to hire. 

• How Does The Trademark Registration Process Work?

This is another important question to ask a trademark attorney. A trademark lawyer should be able to explain to you the whole trademark registration process before you hire them. You should know how they will handle your registration process. They should be able to show what type of databases to assess the availability of your trademark and the risks associated with your chosen trademark symbol.  

Aside from that, your attorney should be able to inform you how much it costs to register a trademark as well as other fees. Your trademark lawyer should explain to you the different filing fees that depend on the type of application.  

Also, your trademark lawyer’s job doesn’t end after registering your trademark. Your lawyer will help you protect your trademark by teaching you how to file maintenance documents or represent you against infringers.

• What Databases Do You Use?

A reputable trademark lawyer should never use free databases when it comes to searching trademarks. Free databases lack functionality when it comes to making comprehensive searches and assessments. 

Government databases can help you find out if a trademark is already in use, if they lack the functionality which is needed to evaluate phonetics, or if there are visual similarities between other trademarks. 

There are also trademark attorneys that are willing to expand their scope of the search for an additional fee. 

• How Much Do You Know About Different Marketing Strategies & The Internet?

A trademark attorney should have in-depth knowledge about different Internet marketing strategies and advertising-related problems. Before you hire a trademark lawyer, you should ensure that he is well aware of the relationship between marketing domains and trademarks. 

Your trademark lawyer should also offer honest advice when it comes to selecting and protecting the brand names of a company. Most of the time, a trademark attorney will suggest clients to choose a new trademark and start from the beginning, especially if you’re looking to trademark a phrase. Your attorney will offer help on whatever things you need to file and ensure that all procedures are observed properly and efficiently.

Final Thoughts

Of course, there are still plenty of other questions that you need to ask a trademark lawyer before hiring them. As with anything else, it’s crucial that you ensure that the attorney you’re going to hire is up to the task and can deliver the help you need from them. Your trademark lawyer should be able to support you through all the “ifs and buts” that your business is going to face when it comes to trademarks. The questions that we discussed above should be asked during the first meeting as they will help guide in finding a trademark lawyer that’s competent and trustworthy.