Patent Attorney and Founder
You’d be surprised how often I hear this question.
Someone wants to register a martial arts system or dojo name, but everyone keeps saying, “Get a lawyer.”
Then comes the real question: what if you don’t have the money right now? Can you do it yourself through the USPTO?
The short answer: yes, you can.
If your martial arts school offers education or training services, you can file a trademark under your studio name, as long as no one else has registered something too similar. You don’t need an attorney to do that. Many people file on their own and get approved.
That said, hiring a trademark lawyer usually gives you better odds. We see a much higher success rate with attorney-filed applications simply because the rules can get tricky. But if you’re willing to spend a few hours learning the process, reading USPTO guides, maybe even tuning into this podcast, you can absolutely file it yourself.
Now, here’s where things get expensive: international trademarks.
If you can’t afford a U.S. lawyer, you definitely won’t want to see those foreign filing fees.
For example, filing one trademark here in the U.S. costs about $250 per class (soon jumping to $350). In the U.K.? Try around $950. And that’s just the government fee, not including legal costs.
And no, there’s no such thing as a “worldwide trademark.” You must file in each country where you want protection. There is something called an international registration number, but that number only applies to the countries you’ve actually filed in. So if someone says they have an “international trademark,” it might just cover one or two places, say, the U.S. and Canada.
To put it in perspective, we recently helped a client file in the UAE. Just the government fees were about $2,500 per mark. That’s before attorney costs. So yeah, it adds up fast.
On the bright side, the USPTO fee increases might actually go toward improving processing times. Lately, it’s taken around eight to nine months just to get a first review, down slightly from ten months. Still too long, but at least it’s moving in the right direction.
We’re keeping our prices steady here at Bold Patents despite those USPTO hikes, because our goal is to help inventors and business owners protect their brands, not price them out of the system.
So if you’re a martial arts instructor or small business owner trying to protect your name, start where you can. Learn the basics, file in the U.S., and when your business grows, then look at international filings.