“Good times” – Before the great 2010 collapse of the USA trademark marketplace.

"Good times" - Before the great 2010 collapse of the USA trademark marketplace.

Hello Client, retirement? My Wife laughed when I said, I’ll be the gardener!

Here’s Part 2 of this sad 4 Part story, titled:

“Good times” – Before the great 2010 collapse

Part 1 was https://conta.cc/4jJOPry. Next will be the “Bad” and “Ugly” articles.

Today there are “weeds” all over the USA “trademark landscape”.

Before 2010 however, the USA had “good times” – flourishing intellectual property “trademark garden paradise”.

When you wanted to start a new business, you found an encouraging business start-up ecosystem willing and happy to truly help you. Whatever you read, wherever you researched, you heard a consistent reliable message. How to develop a great name for your enterprise. How to secure it. From the fictitious name process, to opening a bank account, securing an EIN #, deciding on your entity type, getting a domain and creating a web site. This means trademark attorneys and services were ethical then.

When you know better, from experience – it is just negligence to suggest comprehensive clearance legal research isn’t a critical need. That’s why we should bring back the “good times”.

Astute new business owners knew something about trademarks.

First, the business start-up’s proposed company/product name had to be LEGALLY CLEAR, (sound familiar?). Then the opportunity to keep going to secure a trademark, to own the name, logo or slogan.

To look into these two issues, the typical new business owner would seek advice from their accountant, attorney, books or the fledgling Internet. Nolo Press was very popular in the 1990’s. TradeMark Express has been in the Nolo Press “How to Trademark” books since ~1995. See: https://www.nolo.com/. Thank you Stephen Elias!

What they heard from EVERYONE was that trademarks offered great value, protection and ownership, but FIRST “COMPREHENSIVE LEGAL RESEARCH” had to be done to make sure the given name, logo or slogan – especially the name – WAS AVAILABLE to be used, THEN file for a trademark.

Wherever someone called, they heard the same thing – COMPREHENSIVE RESEARCH WAS NEEDED.

Know what? Yes, EVERYONE before 2010 in the USA, who offered trademark services actually did comprehensive research. EVERYONE. Attorneys and non-attorneys alike. Why has this changed from the “good times”?

So did TradeMark Express, with our combination of expert research services and network of trademark attorneys. IF you were starting a business, you’d hear a consistent message – TRADEMARKING INVOLVES COMPREHENSIVE LEGAL CLEARANCE LEGAL RESERACH. You needed it. Everyone said it. Everyone did it. Trademark attorneys and trademark services didn’t stress it, it was just ordinary step 1 of the 2 step trademark process. A trademark application was the second step.

Legal research was a given. The best thing was this – everyone ACTUALLY DID COMPREHENSIVE LEGAL CLEARANCE LEGAL RESERACH! They didn’t lie about it. It would have been totally unacceptable, unthinkable to lie about something your trademark depended upon.

What differentiated TradeMark Express then from 1992 to 2010 from our non-attorney competitors was that we were a day or two faster and broke the research into steps – 1) the Federal and State trademark research and 2) the national Common Law research. What differentiated TradeMark Express from attorneys was that we were 50% less, while still offering attorney analysis of our lengthy reports.

No trademarking company offered step-by-step legal research then, or even now. Ever. No one. So, IF a mark is blocked, as 33% of our clients were then, (40% now), then they could replenish their fee to start over with a new name, logo of slogan while rolling over the rest of their original fee. This is our Rollover Policy.

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Back to Tom Cook at the Beach Chalet in San Francisco eight weeks ago. See https://www.beachchalet.com/.

We talked about the times up to 2010, before the scam services took flight, (upcoming Part 3, THE BAD). He remembered my staff. Some are still with TradeMark Express today. He knew Erica, Stacey, Jennifer and Jackie.

Tom recalled how interesting the effort of getting a trademark for a client always was. Client ideas for their new business and products are, if you are a “capitalist nut” as we are, always, always a fun, interesting story!

Boundless enthusiasm is exciting. Business start-ups are a beautiful thing. Trademarking was predicable work. Relaxed even as things went. When trademark steps are done properly, namely actual legal clearance research, clean applications, then successful trademark registrations are commonplace.

USPTO refusals simply did not happen, because when blocked clients changed their desired names, logos or slogans when the research proved someone else had rights, under trademark law.

Intellectual property rights of others were commonly respected. Then in 5 and 10 years, when trademark renewals were due, if there was an infringer, enforcement was easy because infringers knew they were taking a chance using a mark that they could someday get a cease and desist. They knew they could be infringing because they were the ones who took the chance, the risk at their start-up, of not listening and clearing their given name, logo or slogan before first use.

Why fear coming to the office, when client’s trademarks could be done correctly in the first place?

Common sense for some!

For people who knew what they were doing, as I witnessed between 1992 and 2010, times were easy. Yours truly could spend a lot of time volunteering at his kid’s schools. Venture into real estate. Etc. Guess who was the Girl Scout Cookie Chair for 2 years, for 2 troops? Guess whose daughters sold the most cookies both years? Even the network attorneys in Chicago and Washington DC bought cookies. Tom too. In any case, anyone in the office could help clients. Even the new hires.

New business owners knew what they were doing because the people helping them start-up were honest. So, they could make better plans and decisions to start their new businesses in a step-by-step correct way. Sometimes, that meant holding off a few months until properly financed. Maybe they decided to hold off entirely. The saying, “If you’re not going to do something right, then don’t do it at all”. (No, I didn’t have to look that up.)

Honesty and competence from opinion leaders, begat trust from new business owners. The marketplace flourished. It could easily be argued the 1992 to 2010 time period was the golden age for small business start-ups. Innovation flourished. The U.S. economy boomed. Every new business start-up was on the same page back then for the trademark process.

One day I happened to be at Tom Cook’s Sausalito office. A TradeMark Express client called. (Remember, Tom was the first of the attorneys in our trademark attorney network, offering consultation analysis of our research reports.) Tom decided his best approach was to spend real time with each client. His approach was to introduce himself and the additional lawyerly services he provided as a trademark attorney, provide an into the world of trademarks then finally the analysis of said research report. This was a 30 minute drama, as you can imagine when discussing conflicts and similarities in sound, appearance and meaning. Clients appreciated his time very much.

Nowadays, we rely on Stan Muller @ CrashCourse – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gWaAJR5L18 to educate our clients.

Honesty and competence from opinion leaders, begets lasting trust from new business owners.

Trademarks are predicably registered.

Enforcement against infringers are simpler.

Trademarks are worthwhile and build wealth.

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Tom Cook’s comment about the first article – https://conta.cc/4jJOPry:

On 4/24/2025 5:33 PM, Thomas Cook wrote:

Well. A bit of back story about the legendary search firm Trademark Express.

I also remember our first call. Looking around for a search firm, I found Trademark Express in the telephone book. Remember telephone books? Sometimes it seems everything depends on timing.

But we know that is not true; timing is only the beginning of potentially good things. Add good intentions, and well directed efforts based on those intentions, and a stable, expert (and yes, even fun), staff is likely. We can even predict this human response to a warm and productive environment. And, baring the unforeseen, we do not go far wrong relying on this environment, and the people in it, when we go further to predict (and achieve) good things.

However quickly you come to it, welcome to the next phase of your life! Some things you will wish to keep as you enter this phase. Other new things you will wish to tackle in the additional time you will make available. But whatever you do in this next phase, those good intentions and well directed efforts, with others, are likely to yield similarly pleasant results.