Should I hire an attorney to file my trademark application or should I do it myself?

Q: What is the cost to trademark a business name with United States Trademark and Patent Office? I don't have a business license yet, however I do own the domain name. I want to register a business name with USPTO. TESS search comes up clear, so the business name is available. I called around and prices vary wildly. One attorney wanted $1,800, another $1,400, and another wanted $800. It’s my understanding the USPTO filing fee is only $275. LegalZoom and trademarkengine.com offer very reasonable pricing to file with USPTO on my behalf. My company will be a tech company (platform) for a certain industry. It's pretty straightforward in my opinion. Should I get an attorney to file for me, or do it online myself?

A: Short Answer: YES, There are two stages to a trademark procurement process. 1) preparation and filing of the application; and 2) prosecution (getting the application through the PTO). The first process involves a search, filing fees, preparation and filing of the application. Assuming that the search does not turn up marks that are potentially confusingly similar, the prosecution should be fairly straight forward. However, trademark rights are acquired NOT by registration, but by usage of the mark in trade and commerce. Unregistered users own "Common Law" rights in their mark. A common law trademark trumps a later registration BUT is limited to the geographic area of its usage. If the search (which must include an effort at identifying common law marks as well as registered marks) does not turn up confusingly similar marks, OR a common law owner of a confusingly similar mark does not object to issuance, then you should not have a problem during the prosecution phase.  Otherwise, the examiner will likely issue a “likelihood of confusion” rejection, which will be expensive to respond to.  Your focus on keeping the costs down is understandable in the general sense of being efficient and frugal, but is misplaced because you don’t want to nickel and dime what is potentially the most valuable asset of your business.