As promised at the end of my previous post, my crusade against LegalZoom continues with a look at how LegalZoom prepares and files federal trademark applications on behalf of their customers. It’s not a pretty picture.
Here’s the way LegalZoom’s trademark application service works. LegalZoom asks you a series of questions similar to those asked on the Trademark Office’s official application form. Once you answer those questions and make your payment, a non-attorney at LegalZoom logs onto the Trademark Office’s website, retypes the information you already provided into the proper spaces, and then electronically transmits the application to the Trademark Office. So easy a caveman could do it, right?
Not exactly. Ever hear of the phrase, “garbage in, garbage out?” Well, that’s exactly what you get with LegalZoom. If you answer one of LegalZoom’s questions incorrectly or inaccurately, then such incorrect or inaccurate information will be submitted to the Trademark Office by LegalZoom and will form the basis of any resulting trademark registration. If a trademark registration contains materially false information, it is basically worthless and subject to cancellation by the first person who happens to like the trademark you registered and would much prefer that you not have exclusive rights to use the mark throughout the United States.
I know what you’re saying to yourself. You’re thinking that Morris just wants to scare people away from using LegalZoom so that perhaps they will retain him to prepare and file their trademark applications for significantly more money than what LegalZoom charges. Trust me, I have no problem admitting that, YES, I am trying to dissuade people from using LegalZoom. And, YES, my fee is approximately two and half times that of LegalZoom. But the reason I and other attorneys charge more than LegalZoom is because we aren’t scribes, we’re lawyers who offer advice and consultation to our clients, who know what questions to ask our clients, what follow-up questions to ask our clients, and who are available to answer all of our clients’ questions and address their concerns. Seriously, if all you want is someone to fill out the blanks on the application form, then look no further than the closest mirror and save yourself the $169 LegalZoom fee.
But doesn’t LegalZoom file hundreds of trademark applications per year? Well, in some of its pay-per-click advertisements, LegalZoom claims to have filed over 75,000 federal trademark applications. While that number certainly sounds impressive and likely lulls consumers into a false sense of security, it really doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot. Why? Because that number doesn’t tell us how many of these 75,000 applications actually matured into federal trademark registrations. It’s very possible (and probable) that a huge portion of these applications are either (1) rejected by the Trademark Office, (2) challenged by a third-party, or (3) inadvertently abandoned due to the trademark owner blowing one of the various deadlines for filing a response to an inquiry from the Trademark Office or for filing the Statement of Use. Of course, because LegalZoom is not a law firm, it cannot perform the legal work necessary to overcome a substantive rejection by the Trademark Office, nor can it help a trademark owner defend an opposition by a third-party. So, please don’t get too giddy about the number of trademark applications LegalZoom has filed. A trademark application that doesn’t mature into a trademark registration is like a popcorn kernel that fails to pop.
Finally, if for some reason you’re still considering using LegalZoom for your trademark application, I encourage you to check out one of LegalZoom’s own pending trademark applications (Serial No. 77476052). If you scroll down all the way to the bottom, you’ll see that LegalZoom actually hired a law firm to help it with its trademark application. Oh the irony!! I think LegalZoom now needs to change its tagline from “We put the law on your side” to “We put the law on your side…and ours.”
