RG
Bait and switch
Felt there was a bait and switch. Thought I was paying for a total package and then, after the fact, was told I needed to pay more money. Nothing on their website explained any of their added costs. Wasn't worthwhile to have them finish. Better cut my losses (several hundred dollars) rather than send money down an endless hole with no idea of when they'll stop soaking me. Update: I've read the company's response. They never "coached" me how to do anything. Don't have a clue to what they are talking about with that. They did offer to let me upgrade for a fee and have more research done (at $100 an hour); that is what I was referring to in regards to a bait and switch. I was lead to believe I was buying a comprehensive package. So they have a link to their website in their response, but if you go to web.archive.org and look up the premium package from the August 2017 capture of their site, you'll see that their website has changed and the important information they have on the link now wasn't there back when I started working with them. (I also have screen captures of their website from back then and a long list of emails back and forth.) There was never a mention of "if such and such happens then we need to charge you more money".
Reply from TradeMark Express & Urgent TrademarkMar 11, 2018
Good Morning Randy, We have done exactly what you hired us to do. NO EXTRA FEES. Not true! You wanted to resurrect a very old, out of business brand. There were descriptiveness issues with the particular name you wanted to trademark. These issues may too be an obstacle to your trademarking the name, whereas they may not have been for the original trademark owner who was out of business. This is why you needed one of our trademark attorneys. The comprehensive trademark research found 3 research conflicts/similarities that turned out not to affect your legal use, so we did the comprehensive common law research and found 29 research conflicts/similarities. Yes, 29 is a lot. These 29 hits like the 3 trademark hits needed to be verified to determine if they in fact were still in business and discussed with one of our 5 trademark attorneys. Yes, it is true that one of our trademark attorneys charges a $35 because he adds an extra written summary of his recommendation. This is his policy, not ours. Our other 4 trademark attorneys do not do written reports, so there is no issue of a $35 fee. All you need is to talk to 1 attorney, not all 5. As to your 29 Common Law research hits, you asked us to check these for you. Our TradeMark Express Premium Package does not include this extra work. Please see our itemized fees, which we explained when you ordered, and are stated in your order confirmation and on our web site: https://www.tmexpress.com/order-my-trademark/. When you complained, we offered you an upgrade to our Urgent Trademark package where we do ALL the competitive checks/verifications - no matter how many. Yes, 29 hits are a lot to verify. You handled the 3 hits at the trademark research level yourself. This is extra work we did not charge for if you see our itemized steps to our Premium Package - the one where you saved $200 on the application. We coached you how to do competitive checks/verifications yourself. We reached out to you numerous times to help you, get back on track. Theses hits do need to be looked into. This is the purpose of the comprehensive research. As the # of hits, ie conflicts and similarities can vary GREATLY between client's orders, and our constant marketplace pressure to keep our fees rock bottom and the relative ease for clients to do these needed checks themselves - we keep to doing the work clients cannot do themselves, namely, the comprehensive research, applications and trademark attorney consultations. This is what we do, what we itemize on our order page. This business model has worked for 25 years. It has personally saved you $1000 from hiring a trademark attorney directly. We'd like to finish your order. Please call us! Chris 650-948-0530