What each question is really asking, what a good answer looks like, and the misunderstandings that trip people up. Each "What does this mean?" link in the questionnaire lands on its section here.
One principle runs through everything: answer with facts, and flag your uncertainty. Several answers eventually feed a sworn declaration filed with the USPTO. An honest "I'm not sure — here's what I know" is always better than a confident guess. Your attorney's job is to resolve the uncertainty; yours is just to surface it.
The person typing is often not the future owner — a marketing director, co-founder, or spouse might be filling this out. Telling us who you are prevents a subtle problem: second-hand information ("I think the LLC was formed in Ohio?") gets flagged for verification instead of taken as gospel.
In US trademark law your filing date is powerful: it generally establishes priority against anyone who adopts or applies for a similar mark afterward. A launch, a trade show, an investor milestone, a competitor circling — tell us, and we sequence the work accordingly.
Trademark law protects word marks (the name itself, in any presentation) and design marks (a logo, or words in a specific style) as separate things. A registration for your logo doesn't fully protect your name, and vice versa. Your engagement covers one mark, so this is partly a scope question.
Rule of thumb if you must pick one: the word mark usually comes first. Names outlive logos — companies redesign logos every few years, but a standard word mark keeps protecting the name through every redesign.
We search and file exactly what you type — spelling, spacing, punctuation. "Sun-Up," "SunUp," and "Sun Up" are not interchangeable. Deliberate misspellings ("KWIK," "PHRESH") are part of the mark; include them exactly. Capitalization is the one thing you need not worry about — a standard word mark covers any case.
A standard character registration protects the words themselves — any font, size, or color, forever. You can rebrand visually without touching the registration. Broadest protection, right answer for most businesses. A stylized registration protects one specific look — right when the look is the brand, or when the words alone are too weak to register without the styling.
Upload the cleanest, highest-resolution master file — ideally what your designer delivered, on a plain or transparent background. This becomes the application's official picture of the mark.
The intuitive answer is backwards. Claim color, and your registration covers the mark only in those colors. Don't claim it, and the registration covers the mark in any color — which is broader. "No" is usually the stronger answer, even with strict brand guidelines. Claim color only when a specific color is genuinely central to the brand's marketplace identity — the Tiffany-blue, UPS- brown category.
Two things happen here. Mechanics: the USPTO requires an English translation of foreign wording and a transliteration of non-Latin script. Substance: under the "foreign equivalents" doctrine, a foreign word can conflict with its English translation — "LUPO" can clash with "WOLF" for similar goods. The answer changes how we search.
Federal law requires the signed written consent of any living person whose name, nickname, signature, portrait, or likeness appears in a mark — and the rule that surprises everyone is that it applies to you. "DAVID REEVES ROOFING," filed by David Reeves, includes David Reeves's own signed consent.
What happens if you answer yes: after you submit the questionnaire, we send you the consent form to sign and return. The application cannot be filed until the signed consent is back in our hands — so the sooner it's returned, the sooner we can file.
Marks that are "primarily merely a surname" are likely to be a problem: the USPTO's view is that everyone should be able to use their own family name, so surname marks are generally refused registration on the main register until the name has acquired distinctiveness — public recognition of it as your brand. The usual route is proof of five years of continuous, substantially exclusive use — and even that is not automatic: the statute says five years' use may be accepted in appropriate cases, and the USPTO can demand more evidence depending on the mark and the record. That's why we ask whose name it is and how long you've used it — so the risk is in front of you before you invest further in the name.
Possibly the most consequential question on the form. Trademark strength runs on a spectrum:
We can't place your mark honestly unless you tell us everything it means: dictionary meanings, industry jargon, what an acronym stands for, what a creative spelling plays on, whether it names a place, ingredient, or feature. If it's a made-up word with no meaning in any language, tell us that.
Optional but genuinely useful. If an agency or freelancer created it, we'll want to confirm the rights were assigned to you in writing — a surprisingly common gap. If an AI tool generated it, see the note in the logo section. If it was inspired by something you'd seen elsewhere — better we hear it from you now than from an examiner later.
Acronyms, nicknames, standalone icons — each is legally a separate mark. Registering "BLUEGRASS ANALYTICS GROUP" does not protect "BAG." To be clear about scope: we search only the exact mark your engagement covers — variants are not separately searched. Listing them is still useful context: it helps your attorney read the search results with your whole brand family in mind and tell you honestly where protection will and won't reach.
The law picks the owner — you don't. The owner is whoever controls the nature and quality of the goods or services sold under the mark. In practice:
Why it's high-stakes: an application filed by someone who isn't the true owner is void — not correctable by amendment. The application fails and the filing date (your priority) is lost. That's why the form gives you an explicit escape hatch: hesitate even slightly → choose "I'm not sure" and describe the situation. Sorting it before filing is quick; discovering it after is expensive.
Give the entity name exactly as your state registered it — pull up your formation documents or the state's business search and copy it. "LLC" vs "L.L.C.", a comma, "&" vs "and" — these mismatches cause real problems and can cast doubt on who filed.
The USPTO requires the owner's domicile address — where an individual actually lives, or an entity's principal place of business — and the domicile address will be in the public record. A P.O. Box, virtual address, or co-working location (like a WeWork) cannot be listed alone as the domicile — we can list one only if we also provide a real-world address.
If the owner's only real-world address is a home address or otherwise private, give it to us anyway. We can file so that the private address is hidden from the public record while the non-private address (the P.O. Box or office) is what the public sees. An owner email is also required even though your attorney handles all USPTO correspondence; with an attorney of record it generally stays off the public face of the file.
The application's sworn declaration rests on facts verified by someone with authority to speak for the owner — typically an owner, officer, member, or manager. "Jordan Reeves, Managing Member" now saves a round-trip later.
A registration protects the name for the goods and services listed — and the list determines your class(es), and fees run per class. You describe the business in plain English; your attorney translates into USPTO language and assigns classes. Don't write "official-sounding" descriptions — real, specific, plain answers are better raw material.
Be specific: "shampoo and conditioner," not "hair care products." And say what customers actually get — selling coffee beans (a good), running a coffee shop (a service), and running an online store selling others' beans (retail services) are three different classifications.
Be honest: list what you genuinely sell or genuinely intend to. The list can be narrowed later but never expanded — and a registration covering goods you never sell is attackable, and you'll sign sworn statements about use. Padding buys risk, not protection.
Likelihood of confusion — the core question in the search and any future dispute — depends heavily on whether two marks travel the same channels to the same customers. Two similar names, one on industrial B2B gear and one on a consumer app, may coexist; both selling to homeowners on Amazon, less so. Geography also feeds the "use in commerce" requirement — "nationwide online" answers a lot at once.
It means bona fide use in the ordinary course of trade — real goods actually sold or shipped bearing the mark, or services actually rendered and advertised under it, in commerce Congress can regulate. In practice that has an interstate dimension: for goods, sales to at least a few customers in another state; for services, serving at least a few customers from another state — either out-of-state customers you reach, or customers who come into your state from elsewhere (out-of-state patrons at a restaurant count). Purely local activity so far is important to tell us about — it usually means we file on an intent-to-use footing instead. What "use in commerce" is not:
First use anywhere: the earliest genuine use, even purely local. First use in commerce: the first use in regulable commerce — usually your first out-of-state or online sale. Same as or later than the first date, never earlier; often identical if you launched online.
The most common mismatch in the wild: you named yourself owner but your LLC makes the sales — or the reverse. Use by a company the owner controls, or by a licensee under a proper quality-control license, can count as the owner's use — but the arrangement has to line up, and this question is where we find out.
"Honestly, I'm not sure which of us is 'using' it" is a great answer. Say exactly that.
Logo file = the clean master image (the drawing). Specimen = the mark out in the world doing its job.
Good specimens for goods: a photo of the product with the mark on it; packaging, labels, hang tags; a webpage showing the mark near the product with a way to order it (Add-to-Cart, pricing). For services: your live site or an ad showing the mark offering the services; signage; marketing materials connecting mark to services.
What fails: mockups and printer's proofs; a bare logo image; business cards alone (for goods); ads for goods that don't picture the goods; anything digitally altered.
Intent-to-use requires a genuine, present intention — a real business trajectory, not a parked name. You don't file evidence of intent, but you should have it: a business plan, product development, packaging design, a purchased domain, supplier conversations. After approval you'll have six months to prove use (extendable, with fees, up to three years) — your launch window shapes our timing advice.
Include everything — federal, state, foreign, abandoned, refused, DIY attempts, filings by a co-founder or predecessor. A prior refusal is especially valuable: it tells us exactly what the USPTO objected to. A head start, not a scarlet letter. "I filed something through a website service in 2023" is enough for us to find it.
Cast a wide net: competitors and non-competitors, the near-identical Instagram handle, the same-named company two states over, whatever a casual Google turned up. "Similar" includes sound-alikes, look-alikes, foreign-language equivalents, and different spellings. You're not expected to have searched — just to report what you've noticed.
Formal or informal, sent or received: cease-and-desist letters, a DM claiming "that's our name," an Amazon or Etsy takedown, a domain (UDRP) complaint, opposition threats — and anything you've sent to others about this mark. Even a resolved dispute shapes strategy; an unresolved one may shape it a lot.
If you filed in another country within the last six months, US law may let your US application claim that earlier foreign filing date as its priority date — a genuine, sometimes decisive advantage, but the claim must be made in time. Existing foreign registrations can also support an alternative filing basis worth discussing.
Bought the business, inherited the brand, took it over from a partner? The chain of title matters — and there's potential good news: a predecessor's use can sometimes count toward your dates. If there's a written purchase or assignment agreement, upload it with the questionnaire — an upload box appears when you answer yes.
This guide is provided by Montague Law PLLC to its Ambit clients as part of an existing engagement. It explains the questionnaire in general terms and is not a substitute for the individualized advice in your written assessment.