Who may represent you
Unlike patent matters, where registered patent agents who are not lawyers may practice, US trademark matters before the USPTO are generally handled by attorneys in good standing with a US state bar, with a narrow exception for certain Canadian practitioners representing Canadian parties. Applicants and registrants domiciled outside the US must be represented by such an attorney. A business can file for itself, but a non-lawyer filing service cannot give legal advice or sign as your representative. Many other countries license trademark agents who are not lawyers, which is one reason the term causes confusion here. The USPTO has also sanctioned filing operations that used attorneys' names without real involvement, and applications connected to those schemes have been terminated.
Watch for solicitations
After you file, you may receive official-looking letters and emails offering monitoring, listing in private directories, or renewal services, often with fees and urgent deadlines. Many come from private companies with names that sound governmental, and the USPTO has warned applicants about them. Official correspondence comes from the uspto.gov domain, and you can check the status of your application directly in the USPTO's own systems. Keep every notice you receive and confirm what it is before paying anyone.
What representation adds
An attorney can run a clearance search, choose the description of goods and services, respond to office actions, and handle oppositions or disputes later on. The filing is only part of the work; specimens of use, response deadlines, and maintenance filings all carry consequences for whether a registration survives. Statements made to the USPTO about use are signed under declaration, and careless ones can be held against the registration. Before an application is filed, we review the mark, the applicant's domicile, and the filing plan, and confirm who will sign each document.
