§ 04 · Timeline
Filing to registration
Filing, examination, publication, and registration. The report shows where each step sits and what is usually waiting time rather than work.
Reading your report
How to read your clearance report.
Six sections, one number that matters most, and a table that looks worse than it usually is.
Proper Counsel PLLC is a New York law firm. Martin S. Hui handles United States trademark clearance and USPTO registration for startup founders.
A clearance report is a snapshot of the federal trademark register around the name you want to use. It is read in the order it is written. This page walks that order, section by section, so the numbers mean what they are supposed to mean.
§ 01 · The headline
One sentence, and a badge.
The top of the report states what the search found in one sentence, then shows a Filing Outlook badge: Clear, Open, Tight, or Crowded. The badge is a summary of the register around your classes, not a verdict on your application.
Filing outlook
Crowded does not mean blocked.
It means the neighbourhood is busy, and the application should be drafted with that in mind: a tighter description, careful class selection, and a clear record of how your goods differ from the marks already there.
The crowding index
49/100
Higher means more room.
The Crowding Index is calculated from live registrations and pending applications near your target classes. A higher number means more room on the register. A lower number means the classes are busy.
It is directional, not a probability of success. A 49 is not a coin flip. It is a signal that the classes are busy and the drafting matters.
- Identical marks
- The same wordmark already sitting on the register.
- Similar marks
- Marks close to yours in spelling, sound, or appearance.
- Class overlap
- How much the conflicting marks sit in the classes you would file in. This is what actually determines whether two marks can coexist.
§ 02 · The pre-drafted application
A draft, not a submission.
The report proposes a mark, an owner, a filing basis, classes, and a goods and services description. Every line of it is reviewed with you and by an attorney before anything is submitted to the USPTO.
The description is the part most worth arguing about, because it defines what the registration actually protects. Too broad invites an office action. Too narrow leaves your real product uncovered.
§ 03 · The conflict table
The table that looks worse than it is.
This is the list of marks standing between you and registration. Read it column by column.
- Mark
- The wording of the conflicting mark as filed.
- Serial or registration no.
- The USPTO file number, so you can look the record up yourself.
- Filing date
- When that owner secured a nationwide priority date.
- Owner
- The applicant or registrant of record.
- Class
- The international classes the mark covers.
- Status
- Live, pending, dead, or abandoned. A dead or abandoned mark in the table is usually good news rather than bad: it is a neighbour that moved out.
- Estimated similarity
- An algorithmic estimate of string, phonetic, and visual proximity. It is directional only, and it is not a prediction of how an examining attorney will rule.
§ 04 to § 06 · The rest of the report
Timeline, why it matters, pricing.
§ 05 · Why register
What filing adds
In the United States, rights come from use of the mark. Filing sets a nationwide priority date and puts the mark on the register where others searching will find it.
§ 06 · Pricing
Trademark Launch Kit
$995 flat attorney fee: knockout and full clearance search, attorney review and strategy call, and USPTO filing for one mark in up to three classes. USPTO government fees are separate and billed at cost, $350 per class, per mark.
For how the search itself is run, see proper-ip.com for methodology, and properipcounsel.com for what filing involves.
Next steps
Read it together, the proper way.
Fifteen minutes with the attorney who reviewed it is usually enough to know whether to file, adjust the description, or pick a different name.
Questions by email: martin@properip.co