Trademarks that hold up

Why registrations fail later

Getting through the USPTO is only the first test. Most services aim only to get your application approved, and that isn't enough. Two registrations can look identical on paper and survive very differently when challenged in litigation or a cancellation proceeding. To be more than a piece of paper, a registration has to stand up to someone else's legal team. When that day comes, the other side's lawyers will pick apart the original filing, looking for any misstep they can find, and the registration can come apart in their hands.

With Ambit, your application gets the scrutiny the other side's lawyers would give it, before filing, while problems can still be fixed.

Serving clients in Kentucky and nationwide.

See the packages How the analysis works

Ownership Use in commerce Intent Specimens Scope Priority Descriptiveness

The pre-filing analysis

Most services get you a registration. Ambit builds one that holds up years later when someone tests it.

For the complete checklist of filing risks, read the full analysis.

The other side's playbook, run against your application before the USPTO ever sees it.

Every defense a challenger's lawyer runs down after registration is a question Ambit asks before filing.

Packages

Prices are flat attorney fees, and every package includes one class of goods or services (the USPTO's category for what you sell). Each additional class is $350 in attorney fees plus the $350 USPTO fee, settled with your attorney after your assessment and before filing. Filing intent-to-use (not selling under the mark yet)? A Statement of Use filing comes later, included in Premium and added in Essentials and Standard (currently $550 in attorney fees plus the USPTO's $150 fee, per class). No subscriptions, no auto-renewals, no monitoring products. Every payment goes into the firm's IOLTA trust account, where it remains your money until earned in stages under the terms. And if your assessment comes back high risk, you choose the path. You can stop and take the refund of the unearned filing portion, run a free second search on a different mark, or file anyway with your eyes open.

Not sure which package is right for your situation, or how many classes your products and services touch? This tool will help guide you, including a first estimate of your classes.

These three packages are built for businesses with new marks. Been using your name for years, and likely to keep it whatever a search might find? See our Established Brand option below. It carries much of the vetting in Standard, without the search and the other pieces an established name may not need.

Essentials

The basic checks, not the deeper analysis

$995 Includes one class; additional classes are optional and can be added later Starting total at sign-up: $1,345, including one $350 USPTO filing fee

Just the basics, for when you need a registration only for limited purposes, and you don't plan to ever enforce it against an infringer. Amazon Brand Registry and social media takedown tools often require a registered trademark, and this tier aims to get you one, with the basic checks but not the deeper vetting of Standard. The deeper analysis belongs to Standard. Signing your Terms of Engagement with Essentials selected confirms that difference, so you choose with open eyes.

Attorney-run U.S. knockout search with a graded, written, attorney-signed risk assessment, and a free second search if the first mark comes back high risk
Specimen review before filing
Attorney-prepared and filed application, goods drafted from the USPTO ID Manual
Responses to non-substantive office actions (minor, fixable USPTO objections), plain-English status updates at every USPTO event, up to 15 minutes of attorney call time, and the registration kit at issuance

Start with Essentials

Standard

The pre-filing analysis

$1,795 Includes one class; additional classes are optional and can be added later Starting total at sign-up: $2,145, including one $350 USPTO filing fee Recommended

A pre-filing analysis. Everything in Essentials, from the search and written assessment through the filed application and status updates, plus the grounds on the list above worked through while it can still be fixed. This is the tier for building a registration that can stand up if it's ever challenged.

Broader search across federal, state, common-law, and domain sources, with a written assessment (the standalone clearance search's coverage, plus domain-name records)
Ownership check and lawful-use screen before filing
Descriptiveness strategy. If your mark leans descriptive, we assess whether your use history may support a claim of acquired distinctiveness and choose the filing posture before the USPTO forces the question.
A review of your use in commerce, including whether your sales reach across state lines, plus filing-basis and timing strategy built on your sales, your dates, and the right basis
Intent-to-use advice and counseling
Goods and services limited to those you confirm you offer or intend to offer, with use dates confirmed with you
Specimen and ornamental-use counseling, and drawing and mark-format strategy
Up to 45 minutes of attorney counsel, usually at the assessment review, with the ownership structuring option surfaced

Start with Standard

Premium

Standard's analysis, plus later steps and the most attorney time

$2,595 Includes one class; additional classes are optional and can be added later Starting total at sign-up: $2,945, including one $350 USPTO filing fee

Premium has the same search and pre-filing analysis as Standard. What it adds is more of your attorney's time, review of any intent-to-use records you provide, safekeeping of your records, and the attorney fees for two later steps paid now instead of billed if they come up.

It is meant for owners with major money going into the brand who want more of the attorney's time, want their launch and sales records kept safe while we represent them, or would rather pay once now than face separate attorney fees later.

Premium costs $800 more than Standard. On an intent-to-use application, the Statement of Use it includes would otherwise cost $550 in attorney fees, and a substantive office action response is otherwise quoted separately when one issues.

For most new marks, Standard is the better fit.

Review of any records you provide that reflect your bona fide intent to use the mark
Secure storage for any intent-to-use and sales records you share. We keep them safe, you own them, and we send them to you or your next attorney whenever you want
One Statement of Use filing included on intent-to-use applications
One substantive office action response included
Up to 75 minutes of attorney counsel, split across sessions before and after filing

Start with Premium

The three packages, side by side

Every package includes the search, a written risk assessment, an attorney-prepared filing, and one class. The difference is how deeply the mark is vetted before filing, and what's included after.

Feature	Essentials · $995	Standard · $1,795	Premium · $2,595
Attorney search	U.S. knockout search	Broader search across federal, state, common-law, and domain sources	Same as Standard
Ownership check	—	Included	Included
Lawful-use screen	—	Included	Included
Use-in-commerce review	—	Included	Included
Bona fide intent-to-use advice	—	Included	Included, plus review of any intent records you provide
Statement of Use, if filing intent-to-use	Added later at its standard fee	Added later at its standard fee	Included
Specimen work	Review before filing	Counseling and review	Counseling and review
Office actions	Non-substantive responses included	Non-substantive responses included	Non-substantive included, plus one substantive response
Attorney counsel	Up to 15 minutes	Up to 45 minutes	Up to 75 minutes
Evidence storage	—	—	Stored, and sent to you whenever you want

Been using your name for years?

Then your situation may be different from a new brand's. Many owners who have built a name over years would keep it regardless of what a search might find, and some decide a search isn't worth paying for at this point. Established Brand is the package for that choice. The attorney work goes into the registration itself, rather than a search you may not want.

Established Brand

For the name you've already built

$1,095 Includes one class; additional classes are optional and can be added later Starting total at sign-up: $1,445, including one $350 USPTO filing fee

Plenty of solid businesses run for years on a name nobody ever registered. If you've been using yours for years, and you'd likely keep it whatever a search turned up, you may decide a search isn't worth paying for now. This package is built for that choice, which you confirm when you sign your Terms of Engagement, and the attorney work goes into a filing built to hold.

An ownership check, so the application is filed under the owner who actually controls the mark, checked against the facts before anything is filed
A review of your use in commerce covering real sales, real dates, whether those sales support a federal filing, and goods and services limited to what your business can genuinely support
Specimen counseling and vetting before filing
Goods and services descriptions drafted to the line
Descriptiveness review where the mark calls for it, including whether your years of use may support a claim of acquired distinctiveness
Attorney-prepared and filed application, responses to non-substantive office actions (minor, fixable USPTO objections), plain-English status updates at every USPTO event, up to 15 minutes of attorney call time, and the registration kit at issuance

Start with Established Brand

Why there's no search in this package. Some owners of long-used names decide a search isn't worth paying for, particularly when they'd keep the name regardless of what it might find. Skipping it is your choice, confirmed when you sign your Terms of Engagement. If you do want your mark searched, consider the Standard package, which includes the broader search and its fuller analysis, or add a knockout or clearance search to Established Brand as a focused service.

Focused services

Order a single service

U.S. knockout search

$795

Attorney-run search of the federal register, one mark, up to three classes, with a graded written risk assessment. No vendor fees, no add-ons.

U.S. clearance search and analysis

$1,595

Federal, state, and common-law sources, one mark, up to three classes, with the same graded written assessment. Deeper coverage, described as exactly that and never as proof that a mark is safe.

Trademark application

$795

One class, use-based or intent-to-use, non-substantive office action responses included. Essentials-level vetting, minus the search. Filing without one is your call to make knowingly.

Between the filing websites and the big firms

Cheap filing sites don't give legal advice, and traditional firms bill by the hour. Ambit is the third option, a real law firm at one flat price.

At most general firms, trademark work is a sideline handled between bigger matters. Ambit does one thing, trademark registrations, backed by a trademark litigator's vetting at a flat fee you see before you start. And trademark law is federal, so Ambit works with clients nationwide.

Comparison	Trademark filing mills	Ambit	Traditional firm
Who does the work	Software and support staff; attorney review is limited or costs extra	A licensed trademark attorney, start to finish	Often a paralegal with just attorney review
Legal advice you can rely on	No. Most state they're not law firms	Yes. A real attorney-client engagement, with privilege	Yes. Attorney-client engagement, with privilege
Search before filing	Exact-match lookup, if any, which misses the confusingly similar marks that can still block you	U.S. search by an attorney, with a written assessment before your filing fees are spent	Yes, usually at added cost
Ownership checked before filing	No	In Standard, Premium, and Established Brand, who actually owns the mark is checked against the facts before anything is filed	A good firm does
Use in commerce reviewed	No	In Standard, Premium, and Established Brand, real sales and real dates, and whether they support a federal filing	A good firm does
Lawful-use screen	No	In Standard and Premium, regulated products are flagged before you pay for a filing that can't stand	Depends on the attorney
Specimens reviewed	No	In every package	Depends on the attorney
Bona fide intent-to-use advice	No	Advice and counseling in Standard; in Premium, counseling plus review of any records you provide that reflect your bona fide intent	Depends on the attorney
If the USPTO cites a minor, fixable problem	You're on your own to figure it out, or pay more	We handle it. Responses to non-substantive office actions are included	Usually billed hourly
Where they are	Anonymous web platforms with no attorney you can name	Lexington, Kentucky. Licensed here, working here	Few Kentucky lawyers focus on trademarks

What happens after you start

No consultation, no phone call to schedule. Pick a package, accept the terms, and pay; the work begins with your answers.

1 / The questionnaire

Longer than the forms elsewhere, on purpose. The detail it demands about your ownership, sales, and plans is the raw material the analysis runs on.

2 / The analysis

Will runs the search and works the grounds on this page against your answers, then sends the graded written assessment with a candid recommendation.

A simple high-to-low risk assessment gauge

3 / The filing

Once the record is right, he prepares the application, confirms the facts behind every statement with you, and files it with the USPTO.

4 / The wait, translated

Examination takes months. At every USPTO event you get a plain-English update on what happened and what, if anything, it requires from you.

If a refusal issues

An office action is a preliminary refusal, and it can be fatal to the application. Nobody here will tell you it's routine. Non-substantive responses are included in every package. If a substantive refusal issues, Will reviews it and quotes the work before anything is billed.

If a response seems likely to be futile, he says so, rather than waste your money on a dead end. Outcomes depend on the refusal, the record, and the examiner, which is exactly why the record gets built carefully before the USPTO ever opens the file.

Will Montague

Will has over thirty years of litigation experience, much of it trademark litigation, and has filed hundreds of trademark applications with the USPTO. By being in the trenches and seeing where trademark registrations get attacked, he knows the pitfalls at the application stage and how best to position a trademark to later withstand a challenge.

Will does the work personally, start to finish, from the search and the analysis to the application and the correspondence that follows.

Licensed in Kentucky, working with clients nationwide. Trademark law is federal, and the USPTO is the same agency wherever you are.

Representative litigation matters

For referring attorneys and professionals

Ambit is Montague Law PLLC's flat-fee trademark service, an attorney-run search and risk assessment, then a prepared and filed USPTO application, at published prices. You can point a client to ambit.wmlex.com, and they can read the full terms, see every price, and start without a phone call.

Your client stays your client. Ambit's engagement is limited to the trademark work described in its terms; we do not solicit referred clients for other work, and we send them back to you for everything outside that scope.

Tested before filing, while problems can still be fixed.

Start your trademark

Pick a package above, answer the questionnaire, and the analysis begins.