Hmm…I’d posted in here, but it’s not here…
I"m not a lawyer, but my ex-wife dealt with this a lot in her library job.
Trademark research can be done on your own, yes, but do you have the legal skills?
There are state trademarks and federal, as well as international.
You’ll need to get to a Patent and Trademark Library. They will not do the research for you, but they can steer you and help you learn HOW to do the research. The more time you spend doing it, the better prepared you can be when you talk to a lawyer. Which you WILL need to do, eventually. 4 hours may be enough, but 8 hours more likely close to what you will need. Just in case. Sometimes, it takes a lot more than that. It all depends. You can pay the lawyer to have that research done, (can you say cha CHING???) or you can do it yourself. Needless to say, if you do a half-assed job of the research, and you miss something, you’ll pay for it in the long run, by having legal fees with no positive result. Still, you’ll likely want to do it yourself, the lawyer should do a little bit no matter what. But you can provide a big help to her/him.
Another thing you might try, if there are any regionally successful bands in your area, on the road most weekends, playing one nighters in a 200 mile area or so…ask them. They probably have a trademark on their name. If they don’t, they’re silly.
