I find I tend to get a bit extra motivated to work on QubeKwest when I spend a bit of money. Sometimes that means software to help to make sure my concurrent code isn’t going to blow up. Other times that means buying piles of books. This time it meant applying for a registered trademark for QubeKwest. The post you are reading has been in draft status for months now as I worked through the process of trying to get the trademark and update it as things move along.
The real first step was to have a random idea and desire to get QubeKwest trademarked. Once I’d done that, I headed over to LegalZoom and went through the process of filling out the application. The application I’m referring to at this point is the one on LegalZoom, not the actual application for the trademark. That comes later.
The first bit of resistance I ran into was a field on the LegalZoom application for a trademark that was marked as optional. This field asked me to define the “Class” of the trademark. That is essentially the way the trademark is designated to a certain type of good or service. I went into the list of classes and spent a good 20 minutes searching and reading the choices, only to decide that since the field was optional, I would skip filling it in for fear of getting it wrong. After a few days, LegalZoom contacted about the fact that I hadn’t specified a class.
This was a little more confusing than it probably should have been because LegalZoom has a page devoted to the list of classes complete with examples of things that fall under those classes. This page didn’t match the email they sent me with suggested classes at all. In fact, had the reference page said the same things their suggestions in the email had said, I would have filled it in immediately during the initial application. Instead I needed to call them up and have a quick discussion about what it should be.
After that, the ball was once again rolling in the right direction. The next step was to wait for the trademark search. This search is to make sure I wasn’t trying to trademark anything that someone else already had. I obviously hoped I wasn’t, and I had definitely spelled it differently than anyone else. This search took a few days to start, and then another few days to finish. The results were voluminous because they had attempted to separately match Qube and Kwest. Nothing that came up was the same but I studied the list all the same. After looking over the search results, I decided that none of the matching results were similar enough to QubeKwest to result in a conflict. Thus, I informed LegalZoom to continue the process.
For reasons I don’t fully understand, LegalZoom then proceeded to email me multiple times and then even to call me to tell me to review my search results. I suspect it was just multiple automated systems that were just lagging behind the process I had been following. Since I’d already done the approval and contact to tell them to carry on, there was nothing to do but to look over the emails and listen to the robocall to make sure I hadn’t missed anything and then move on with my day.
Next, with the search behind me and thankfully confirming that I should be able to apply for a trademark successfully, the process moved on to the part where I have to actually apply for the trademark. LegalZoom filled out all that paperwork for me, and that meant it was up to me to simply look it over and give them final approval to send it in for me. It took me a few hours to quadruple check everything over and then I gave them my blessing to send it on to the US Trademark Office.
The result of saying “go” was that I was directed to a USPTO signature page where I had to make sure everything looked good, agree to a few things, and then electronically sign the application. This in turn sends the information back to LegalZoom, and then I think they sent in the real application. It’s all getting a little fuzzy at this point in the process because there seems to be a fair number of things that are going back and forth behind the scenes that I don’t see or need to approve (since I already previously did so).
Naturally, the US Trademark Office is a busy place, so this part involved a whole lot of patience. Like months and months worth of patience. In fact, from the point where the application was accepted by the USPTO, they told me I wouldn’t even be assigned a lawyer to work on my application for at least three months. I guess that’s just how long the backlog is for lawyers over there. After almost three months, my application was assigned to a lawyer and within almost no time was suspended (denied) for being similar to another name. Weirdly, I never found the potentially misleading name through either the trademark search that was done by LegalZoom or with the one I later did on my own. Apparently whatever secret list the USPTO has for searches had it though.
In the end, I spent a pile of money, Legalzoom felt genuinely worthless in the process, and I was denied. I am now the proud owner of nothing more than I was at the beginning, and I’m out a small pile of money without anything to show for it. I have no intention of changing the name of this project, at least for now, because I don’t consider the name to be misleading or confusing with other game names.
Process Timeline
- April 25, 2019 @ 1:55 PM – Completed the LegalZoom application.
- April 29, 2019 @ 12:18 PM – LegalZoom informed me that I needed to clarify the “Class” for the trademark.
- April 29, 2019 @ 1:09 PM – LegalZoom updated the trademark to “Class 009.”
- April 30, 2019 – Trademark search started.
- May 03, 2019 @ 8:53 AM – Trademark search completed.
- May 03, 2019 @ 9:14 AM – Sent instructions to continue filing the application without changes.
- May 03, 2019 – LegalZoom’s Peace of Mind Review™ started.
- May 04, 2019 @ 12:03 PM – LegalZoom’s Peace of Mind Review™ done.
- May 04, 2019 @ 12:55 PM – Electronic Signature Accepted for new trademark application.
- May 06, 2019 @ 3:06 PM – Application sent to USPTO and my trademark application was given a serial number.
- May 06, 2019 – LegalZoom shipped QubeKwest Trademark package to me.
- May 13, 2019 @ 1:25 PM – Trademark package arrived from LegalZoom.
- May 21, 2019 – USPTO status: New application will be assigned to an examining attorney approximately 3 months after filing date.
- July 18, 2019 – USPTO status: New application assigned to an examining attorney for examination.
- July 20, 2019 – Trademark application for QubeKwest was suspended (ie: denied) due to it being potentially confusing with another existing trademark.
- July 20, 2019 – Process is now complete, no point in appealing.