Trademarks

Trademark Attorney in Houston, Texas

Clearance searches, federal registration, USPTO refusals and brand disputes for Houston businesses, at a flat fee quoted in writing before we begin.

Leavitt and Eldredge represents Houston businesses through the full life of a trademark: clearance search, federal application, USPTO office actions, and enforcement when someone copies the brand. We have offices in Houston, The Woodlands and Sugar Land, our fee is a flat $1,200, and consultations are free.

Why Houston brands collide

Houston is the largest city in Texas and one of the most crowded markets in the country for the businesses that depend on a name: energy services companies, medical and dental practices, restaurants, contractors, consumer products, and a startup scene fed by the Medical Center and the energy corridor. The more companies competing in the same categories across the same metro, the higher the odds that the name already on your signage, your trucks, and your packaging is confusingly close to one somebody else filed first.

There are two ways to find that out. The expensive one arrives after the investment, when a letter from another company's lawyer lands after two years of reviews attached to the name. The cheap one arrives during a clearance search. The work below is organized around getting you to the cheap version.

What we handle for Houston businesses

Clearance before you commit

We search the federal register, pending applications, Texas state registrations, and common law use for marks that could block yours or that yours could infringe. You get a plain answer about the risk, not a database printout. If the name is a problem, you learn it while changing course is still a design decision rather than a legal one.

Filing the federal application

We prepare and file the application with the USPTO: choosing between a word mark and a design mark, identifying the right classes, and drafting a goods and services description broad enough to cover how the business will grow without colliding with registrations you did not need to fight. The mechanics are laid out on our trademark registration page.

Answering the USPTO

Office actions are routine. Most are a likelihood of confusion refusal, a descriptiveness refusal, or a problem with the specimen. Each carries a deadline that ends the application if it passes. We respond and keep the docket, so the deadline is not sitting in a business owner's inbox behind payroll and invoices.

Enforcement, and defense

Registration is paperwork; enforcement is the point. We send and answer cease and desist letters, file and defend oppositions and cancellations at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, and litigate infringement in federal court. If a larger company has accused your Houston business of infringing, that is the same conversation from the other side, and it is one to have with us before you reply to them.

Tried and won in Houston's federal court

Most trademark work is sold as a filing service, and the day the mark actually matters the filing firm refers you out. Ours does not. Brandon Leavitt, the firm's lead litigator, is admitted in all four Texas federal district courts and has argued before the Federal Circuit and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

That includes Houston's own court. In KY Home and Garden, LLC v. AMI Ventures, Inc., 4:20-cv-3382, he sued an infringer in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas and proved the defendant had infringed his client's registered trademark. Before the TTAB, in Verify Him, LLC v. Lanning, Opposition No. 91252600, he blocked a mark that would have been confused with his client's registration. The full list is on our litigation cases page.

What it costs

A federal trademark application is a flat $1,200, plus $350 for each additional class of goods or services. The quote is in writing before we start, and it does not change because the USPTO took longer than expected. Every fee on the firm's schedule is on the costs and fees page.

Three offices in the Houston area

We meet clients at 11811 North Freeway, Suite 500, in Houston; at 2002 Timberloch Place, Suite 200, in The Woodlands; and at 3 Sugar Creek Center Blvd, Suite 100, in Sugar Land. Call 832-944-4221 for any of the three. Most matters run entirely by phone and email, and the first consultation is free.

Common questions

Frequently asked

How much does a trademark attorney cost in Houston?
Our fee for a federal trademark registration is a flat $1,200, quoted in writing before any work starts. That covers the clearance search, the application, and our time preparing it. Houston firms that bill by the hour cannot tell you in advance what a registration will cost, because the USPTO controls how long it takes.
Do you have an office in Houston?
Yes. We meet Houston clients at 11811 North Freeway, Suite 500, in Houston; at 2002 Timberloch Place, Suite 200, in The Woodlands; and at 3 Sugar Creek Center Blvd, Suite 100, in Sugar Land. Most trademark work is handled by phone and email, so many clients never need to visit, but the offices are there when a meeting helps.
Does a Texas registration protect my brand, or do I need a federal one?
A Texas state registration protects the mark inside Texas only. A federal registration with the USPTO gives you a presumption of ownership across the whole country, the right to use the registered symbol, and the ability to stop imports that copy your mark. For a business that sells online or ships outside Texas, federal is the one that matters, and it is the one we file.
Someone in Houston is using a name close to mine. What are my options?
It depends on who used the name first, where, and for what goods or services. If they hold a federal registration, your options narrow quickly. If neither of you has registered, priority turns on first use in commerce. Bring us the facts before you send anything, because a demand letter aimed at the wrong target can start the fight you were trying to avoid.
Where are Houston trademark disputes heard?
Federal trademark infringement cases from Houston are filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Our lead litigator, Brandon Leavitt, has tried and won a trademark infringement case in that court. Disputes over whether a mark should register at all are heard by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board at the USPTO.
How long does a Houston trademark registration take?
Roughly eight months to a year when the application runs cleanly, longer if the USPTO issues an office action. Your rights date from the day you file, not the day the registration issues, so the timing that matters is how soon you file.

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