You Built the Brand. Let's Make Sure It Stays Yours.

You'll talk through your brand, the name or offer you want to protect, and where the real risks are. You'll get an honest, plain-language read on whether it's smart to file now or fix something first — and clear next steps. No obligation to move forward, and nothing you'll need a law degree to follow.

It's $150, credited in full toward any trademark search-and-filing package — as long as your agreement is signed and paid within 7 days of your session. For founders who move forward, it effectively costs nothing, and either way you leave with a clear read on your name.

You can reschedule or cancel at no charge up to 24 hours before your booked time, using the link in your confirmation email — a cancellation with that much notice is refunded in full. Inside 24 hours, the $150 is retained as compensation for the reserved time, which has been held for you and can no longer be offered to anyone else. You're welcome to move a session once at no charge if something comes up with more than 24 hours to go. If you don't attend, the session is treated as held after 15 minutes and the fee is retained on the same basis, with no credit toward a package. If Kaleidoscope needs to move your session, you'll be offered the next available time or a full refund, your choice.

Often, yes. If you're using your name as a brand — on a product line, a media company, a coaching business — it can function as a trademark, not just a signature. Personal-name marks come with their own rules (sometimes the USPTO wants to see that the public connects your name with what you sell), which is exactly the kind of thing worth sorting out before you file rather than after.

Often, yes. A podcast name, a course or program, a signature framework, a recurring series — each can be protectable when it's working as a brand for something people pay for, not just a title. What's protectable, and in which category, depends on how you actually use it. That's what the search and strategy are for.

That's much of the point of having one. A federal registration gives you the legal standing to make a copycat stop — and it's what platforms like Amazon, Etsy, and Instagram ask for when you report knock-offs or impersonators through their brand-protection tools. Without a registration, you're usually left asking nicely and hoping.

Not necessarily — it depends on who used it first, in which category, and whether either of you has filed. Sometimes there's a clear lane for you; sometimes a small adjustment keeps you safely clear. A search tells you exactly where you stand before you spend money, which beats assuming the worst or charging ahead blind.

Usually it's the opposite. In the US, the person who files correctly first generally secures the rights — not whoever's been around longest — so waiting is what creates risk, not maturity. And the bigger and more visible you get, the more tempting your name is to copy, and the more a forced rebrand would cost. The cheapest time to protect a name is before you have to.

Yes. US law lets you file based on a genuine intent to use a name, which can lock in your priority date before you've sold a thing — helpful if you're about to launch and don't want someone filing first. There's a later step to confirm real-world use — your Statement of Use — which is a separate filing quoted at our current rate when the time comes. We'll map that timing and cost together in your session.

Very little. After a short intake form and the strategy session, the heavy lifting — the search, the written opinion, the application, any office actions — is handled for you. You'll be kept in the loop and asked for the occasional detail, but you won't be living inside the USPTO's system. That's the whole point of handing it to someone who lives in this world so you don't have to.

You can file a form — anyone can. But a trademark is only as strong as the strategy behind it, and filing yourself means guessing at the two things that decide whether your registration actually protects you: whether your name is even strong enough to be protectable in the first place, and which categories to file in so the registration is enforceable rather than just an official-looking certificate. Get either wrong and you've paid for a piece of paper that won't stop anyone. The value isn't the filing — it's the brand strategy that goes into the search, the analysis, and the way it's filed.

Those services are form-fillers: you type your details in, they submit them, and that's the service. No one tells you whether your name is actually protectable, no one chooses the categories that make your registration enforceable, and if the USPTO pushes back, you're on your own. A trademark can be "registered" and still fail to protect you when it matters — that's the difference between a certificate and real protection. What you're paying for here is the legal brand strategy that turns a filing into something that actually holds up.

A full clearance search across federal, state, and common-law sources, and a strategic read on whether your name is strong enough to protect and how to position it. A written opinion with your risk assessment and filing strategy, usually within 7–10 business days, plus an optional 30-minute call to walk through it if you'd rather talk than read. Your application prepared and filed in the category that makes it actually enforceable — one class is covered by the fee, with each additional class at $350 — and drafted to keep your government fees as low as the rules allow. Office action responses — the USPTO's questions or objections — handled: procedural (non-substantive) ones always, and one substantive response on names cleared low risk. Further responses, and responses on names filed at medium or high risk, are handled at our current flat rate, quoted before any work starts. Plus monitoring all the way to your registration certificate, and renewal tracking so it never quietly lapses. The $2,500 is the flat legal fee. It does not include the USPTO's filing fee, which is paid separately at cost — currently $350 to $550 per class, depending on whether your goods and services fit the USPTO's pre-approved descriptions or need custom wording. Most filings here land at the $350 base, because that's exactly what a decade inside the USPTO is for. You'll know your exact government fee before anything is filed.

A word mark protects your name itself — in any font, color, or styling. That's usually the broadest, most valuable protection. A design mark protects your specific logo as a visual asset. Each is a separate application at $2,500, covering one class. Protecting both together is the Name + Logo Package: $4,895 for the two applications, on the same terms. Both figures are legal fees; the USPTO filing fee for each class of each application is paid separately at cost. We'll map what's right for you in your session.

They're the government's own fees, paid directly to the USPTO on top of your legal fee, and they aren't included in the package price. Expect $350 to $550 per class. The base fee is $350, but the USPTO adds $200 per class when an application describes your goods and services in custom wording instead of its own pre-approved language, and another $100 per class when required detail is missing. That's the difference between a $350 filing and a $550 one, and it's decided entirely at the drafting stage. Your application is drafted to fit the USPTO's pre-approved descriptions wherever they genuinely match your business, which keeps your fee at the base. When your brand truly needs custom wording, or needs more than one class, you'll know the number before you file rather than after.

An office action is the USPTO raising a question or objection — common, and not the end of the road. Procedural (non-substantive) responses are always included. One substantive response is included when the name cleared low risk in the search. If the search graded the name medium or high and you chose to file anyway, or if a second substantive response is needed, that work is handled at our current flat rate, quoted up front so you always know what you're paying for. Either way, they're handled by someone who wrote thousands of these from the government's side.

For names cleared as low risk: if the USPTO refuses your application and the refusal survives our office action work, Kaleidoscope will run a fresh clearance search and prepare and file a new application for a revised or replacement name, at no additional legal fee, provided you start within six months. "Refile" doesn't mean resubmitting the same name into the same refusal; it means a new search and a new filing on a name built to clear. You cover the USPTO filing fee on that new application, since the government doesn't refund or waive its fees. It doesn't apply where medium or high risk was flagged and you chose to proceed anyway, and it doesn't include a Request for Reconsideration or a TTAB appeal, which are separate engagements. It's not a promise of registration — no one can promise that. It's a commitment to the quality of the work.

No. Registration can never be guaranteed, and anyone who promises it isn't being straight with you — USPTO outcomes simply can't be predicted with certainty. What's guaranteed is the quality and precision of the work, backed by the Confidence Guarantee for eligible low-risk filings.

Each name that earns money and that people associate with you is a separate registration — and separately vulnerable. Your business name is one. Your signature offer, your course, your podcast, your method — each can be its own filing. A competitor doesn't need your business name; they only need the offer name you've promoted most. At six figures, you likely have more than one name worth protecting.

Yes. The firm is fully virtual and U.S.-licensed, and works with founders and creators around the world who want to protect their brand in the United States — one of the most valuable markets to lock down. If you sell to, ship to, or build an audience in the US, a US registration matters, wherever you happen to be.

Your session happens at your booked time. Filing is usually prepared within 1–2 weeks of getting started. Government review and registration takes roughly 8–14 months — but your legal priority date locks in the day your application is submitted, so the protection clock starts then, not at the end.

A registration isn't entirely set-and-forget — there are maintenance filings due at specific points (the first between years five and six) to keep it alive, each with its own USPTO fee. Your renewals are tracked so a deadline doesn't quietly lapse and cost you the mark you worked to secure.