If you are a practitioner, design applications are like your free throws. They are relatively straight forward to prepare as long as you're working with a legit patent illustrator, and the examination process is pretty seamless. I recently received a notice of allowance for one of my design patent applications (yay). But looking through the notice of allowance, I noticed that the examiner made an examiner's amendment and objected to the drawings. 

I was recently asked to file a trademark application for someone who had a registered trademark that went abandoned for failing to pay maintenance fees. Enough time had passed that I could not revive the registration and the only way to obtain any trademark rights again was to reapply and presumably re-register the application. I was told that this would be a "super easy job" that was "very simple to do." 

But it is often easy to underestimate the amount of work required and oversimplify things. 

Whether I am representing a trademark owner or a trademark infringer, my clients want to know what to expect in a trademark dispute. And every trademark dispute has distinct stages that plays out pretty similarly. Disputes that I handle commonly involve the following stages:

If you have ever used TEAS (trademark electronic application system), you might have noticed that the user interface is pretty dated and not very user-friendly. The text boxes, in particular, only allow you to see a few lines at a time so if you're typing in a lot of information (particularly for goods and services description), it can be difficult to keep track of what you're writing. Different parts of the application are also separated into different pages so you also have to make sure to go back and check your work before submitting your application. Once you file your application, you can read through your filing receipt to review the information you've provided in the application. Here is when you might find out that there is a mistake on the application. If you happen to make a mistake, what should you do?

First thing to keep in mind that there's really nothing you can do for about a week. This means that if you discover your mistake right after submitting your application, you will have to wait until your application is processed into the system.