TRADEMARK ENGINE. Pay a Pauper’s Fee, Get Royally Screwed – Part 1 of 3 –022224

Hello Client, eleven days ago was the SuperBowl. It is sports pinnacle event of “fairplay”, “good faith” and “good sportsmanship”fun. In our professional lives we want toemulate sports. Build a better business. Beatour competitors. We strive to succeed. Prideis taken, as we build what we hope to begenerational wealth. Well, at least pay therent…I’d like be positive when asked aboutcompetitors. I’d like to stress our strengths -like in the business owners in this Alignablediscussion group –https://www.alignable.com/groups/startup-business-group/1622377-1708270652.This missive is about TRADEMARKENGINE’s trademark monitoring servicesubscription fees.Shawn Plummer credit card statement alsoat:

https://www.annuityexpertadvice.com/trademark-engine-review/. See above.

WORTHLESS TRADEMARK MONITORING SUBSCRIPTION FEES.Trademark monitoring picks up NEW trademark filings, which just happened. Monitoring isthe next step AFTER a comprehensive legal search is done against all EXISTING Federaland State trademarks. Trademark Engine’s great omission is ignoring the 30 millionexisting names/logos/slogans in USA commerce, like they do not exist. Normally, acomprehensive legal search is done, THEN trademark monitoring is started. Startingmonitoring of the ~2000 new trademark filings every day is WORTHLESS to 95% of newbusiness start-ups. Monitoring is useful for those in very competitive fields, usually whenproducts are sold. Most small business start-ups do not need monitoring at all.In any case, the Trademark Engine offers 10 days of free trademark monitoring, thenunless cancelled, an automatic charge of $175 per quarter for endless trademarkmonitoring. The “getcha” is you “gotta” call the right department to cancel. Good luck.They seem to hardly ever be in the office or ever return calls. Complaint after complaintdocument how hard it is reach this part of Trademark Engine. Messages are not returned.The practice really isn’t an example of “good faith”. Thus, the practice seems intentional.
Business owners are busy people. People are not aware what is going on. They forget topersist. When client’s give up, Trademark Engine makes more $.One person kept at it. Please seeShawn Plummer’s credit card statement above, (alsoat https://www.annuityexpertadvice.com/trademark-engine-review/). Mr. Plummerwas charged $175 x6x = $1050 for unnecessary Trademark Engine trademark monitoringservices for his Annuity Expert trademark filing.READ THE COLLABORATING SERVICE REVIEWSTrademark Engine’s monitoring overcharges are a consistent complaint over the years.Please search the word “MONITOR” in their reviews at Trustpilot(https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.trademarkengine.com?stars=1 and https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.trademarkengine.com?stars=2),and BBB (https://www.bbb.org/us/tx/houston/profile/trademarkconsultant/trademark-engine-llc-0915-90044544).Also, please be careful with the 5-Star reviews.
Trademark Engine captures these reviewsas soon as people order, before their credit cards and intellectual property is evenconsidered to be legally clear by the USPTO in 9 months, (3.5 million marks), or 10 yearsby others with Common Law and State trademark rights, (26.5 million marks in the USA).Why wouldn’t anyone happy when they think they just saved $2500 over hiring atrademark attorney, while paying just $49 or $99? Too good to be true?Trademark Engine tasks some staff members to call clients and ask for a nice review. Atthe BBB, most of the 5-Star reviews seem to be written by Trademark Engine staffmembers themselves. In one case a Trademark Engine staff member is thanked by nameas being a “SHE”, then another review as a “HE”. As to the BBB, a client has to be reallymad to seek out the BBB and give a bad review. A client would have to be from anotherplanet to go to the BBB to give a positive review. It is my opinion – whatever that is worth -the positive BBB Trademark Engine reviews may have been written by Trademark Enginestaff members. I plan to submit a whistleblowers complaint at Trustpilot and the BBB.

Of course, I cannot be sure, but c’mon!

UP FRONT DUBIOUS TRADEMARK ENGINE CHOICES: $99 + $99 + $59 = $257.Yes, Trademark Engine has extra fees beyond their heavily advertised “too low to be true”$49 and $99 fee. These fees deserve note. Please see Shawn Plummer’s credit cardstatement above. All these fees were charged on the same day Shawn hired TrademarkEngine.1) $99 Office Action Assurance. How is it known now that the USPTO will issue anOffice Action refusal, before you even apply for a new trademark? The trademarkapplication process takes at least 9 months before an Examining Attorney even looks atyour application. Yes, there’s a good chance you will get an Office Action refusal becauseTrademark Engine is an automated trademark filer. This is a premature charge. A fairquestion is if people receive a refund if their trademark is accepted by the USPTO?2) $99 Declaration-of-Use. Actually these are called SOU Statement-of-Use filings. Theyare for when you file an ITU Intent-to-Use trademark application. Only a small % of peopleare not yet in business when they hire anyone to handle their trademark.
Besides, even ifneeded, a SOU won’t be needed until a business actually opens. This could be 3.75years, (45 months), later if all 5 USPTO 6-month extensions are exhausted. So, to chargeeveryone $99 before knowing which few people actually need this extra work is apremature charge for them. A complete overcharge for everyone else.3) $59 Certified Copy. No trademark service or attorney charges anything for a newtrademark certificate. The USPTO emails a free registration certificate to every newtrademark owner. It is not certified. It is a certificate. It is also online at USPTO.gov at anytime to view. Here’s an oldie, but goodie –

https://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer=sn74526812&docId=ORC20011120103827&linkId=15#docIndex=14&page=1

PS: I have been writing about trademark traps and scams. Every business has a name.Products have names. Every name needs to be LEGALLY CLEAR, even if the extra steptrademarking is not desired. If you choose to get a trademark, that is where the low-pricedscams and unethical trademark attorneys who skip the legal research lurk. It is hard to tellthe difference between a great web site of a scam and another great web site of a goodservice.
Commissioner David Gooder on a June 11, 2021 Zoom meeting, called such firms”trademark mills” and agreed with me that these firms were negligent and unethicalbecause they were skipping the needed comprehensive legal research, they routinelysubmit poor applications for their clients and omit trademark attorney assistance. Thereare a lot of documented trademark scams. See what the USPTO has collected -https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/protect/caution-misleading-notices.Have you come across one of these scam trademark services?Call me, send an email – go onto my open Zoom link, below.I figure to be exposing more of these all Winter & Spring.Thank you,Chris 650-948-0530 / Zoom Anytime -https://bit.ly/TradeMarkZoomMeetingCalendly Meeting – https://calendly.com/tmexpress/15min
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