Creating Passive, Subscription Revenue for your Trademark Practice with Alt Legal Trademark Protection
Alt Legal Team | February 27, 2023
With Alt Legal, you have everything you need to effectively manage your clients’ trademarks. Alt Legal IP Docketing Software helps you streamline new filings and track deadlines for existing matters. Alt Legal’s latest product release, Alt Legal Trademark Protection monitors trademarks to provide your clients value beyond filing and managing their portfolios. Alt Legal Trademark Protection monitors your entire USPTO portfolio for a competitive flat-fee by analyzing:
- New applications for marks that have identical or nearly identical literal elements;
- Likelihood of confusion office actions that mention your marks; and
- Publications of any applications that were initially refused because of §2(d) likelihood of confusion.
Because Alt Legal Trademark Protection is a fraction of the cost of traditional monitoring services, you can pass along the cost-saving benefits to your clients and still make Alt Legal a revenue center rather than a cost of running your practice. In fact, many Alt Legal customers have successfully created subscription trademark monitoring plans for their clients, monetizing their Alt Legal Trademark Protection subscriptions directly.
Alt Legal makes it easy to provide all of your clients an affordable, subscription-based trademark monitoring plan. Whether your clients have previously declined monitoring services due to the high cost or have matters that do not require the elaborate (and often, overinclusive) reports that a traditional trademark monitoring or watch service would provide at a cost of $1,000+ per year/mark, Alt Legal Trademark Protection is a perfect solution. Further helping to keep costs down, Alt Legal Trademark Protection provides highly-tailored reports that you can quickly scan, minimizing the amount of time you spend reviewing reports. You can deliver results to clients with plenty of time to develop an enforcement strategy and take action.
In this article, we’ll walk you through how you can create an affordable subscription trademark monitoring plan using Alt Legal Trademark Protection that will not only help your clients enforce their valuable trademark rights but will also bring more business to your firm.
Create a Plan to Provide Ongoing Value to Your Clients
It’s simple to develop a subscription trademark monitoring plan using Alt Legal Trademark Protection. Here are a few initial considerations as you set up your plan:
Set forth how many marks you will monitor for a set fee
Your subscription plan can be priced per mark, or for a set number of marks. Alternatively, your plan can encompass the client’s entire US portfolio or any figure that makes sense based on your clients and their portfolio size and composition. Consider factors such as whether a client has a number of similar word marks where monitoring would essentially be for a single set of marks, or whether your client has a number of distinct marks and monitoring would involve looking at several different literal elements.
ex. Trademark Monitoring Subscription Pricing for USPTO Word Marks
| Number of Marks | Price |
| Up to 5 Marks | $75/annually |
| Full USPTO Portfolio – Single Set of Marks (Up to 20 Marks) | $150/annually |
| Full USPTO Portfolio – Variety of Marks (Up to 20 Marks) | $200/annually |
Describe the scope of monitoring to be provided
You will need to explain to clients what the monitoring service entails and what you will be looking for versus what a traditional, more expensive monitoring service will reveal. You can use the following language to describe the scope of monitoring to be provided:
Your trademark monitoring plan will review newly-filed USPTO trademark applications that are likely conflicting with your word-only USPTO trademark matters (this plan does not include design monitoring.) It will identify marks that are identical or that have significantly overlapping literal elements. This monitoring plan does not look for marks that sound similar, rhyme, that are translations, or contain misspellings, as other more expensive monitoring services would. Additionally, your trademark monitoring plan will look for any instance where a new trademark application is refused based on likelihood of confusion with your mark.
Determine frequency of reports to clients
You will be receiving frequent reports from Alt Legal Trademark Protection (weekly reports from Trademark Application Match and daily and weekly reports from §2(d) Trademark Watch) but we recommend sending monthly or quarterly reports to clients as to not overwhelm them with information. Of course, if you identify a particularly concerning application or a mark that has been published for opposition, you should notify the client right away, but in general, most clients will be satisfied with monthly or quarterly pacing. Communication is key: be sure to specify how often you will be reaching out regardless of whether or not you’ve encountered any concerning applications. This will help you to set the expectation with your client and build the experience of having a subscription trademark monitoring plan. You can use the following language to describe reporting frequency:
Your monitoring plan includes monthly/quarterly reports summarizing all potential conflicts and recommended courses of action. You will receive the same monthly/quarterly report even if no potential conflicts have been identified. You may also receive intermittent communications if a particularly concerning matter has been identified or published for opposition.
Spread the News to Your Clients
Once you’ve developed a framework for your trademark monitoring plan using Alt Legal Trademark Protection, you can spread the word and email your clients! Build a successful marketing campaign for your trademark monitoring plan by sending at least three emails, all with slightly different subject lines and overall language. Here is some sample copy that you can use:
Sample Email #1
Dear ___
I hope all is well! I’m so excited to share our firm’s latest offering to ensure that the trademarks you’ve invested in are adequately protected. For just $75/annually, our new trademark monitoring subscription plan monitors up to 5 US word marks for the most egregious infringement. Up until now, trademark monitoring services have been prohibitively expensive, but there are new innovative offerings that provide a baseline level of monitoring at a low cost. I’m beyond pleased to pass the savings and trademark protection capabilities on to you so that you can protect your valuable trademarks.
If you’re interested in learning more about our new trademark monitoring subscription plan, reply “yes” to this email or set up a quick 15 minute call with me here.
Sample Email #2
Dear ___
Trademark monitoring and enforcement is something nobody wants to think about (or spend money on.) But, with the number of new trademark applications growing each year before the USPTO, it’s important that trademark owners take proactive measures to monitor their valuable trademarks.
As a valued client, I wanted you to be among the first to hear about our firm’s new trademark monitoring subscription plan. For $75 annually, I will monitor up to 5 US word marks for the most egregious infringement.
If you’re interested in learning more about our new trademark monitoring subscription plan, reply “yes” to this email or set up a quick 15 minute call with me here.
Set Up a Payment or Invoice System
An important step in developing a subscription trademark monitoring plan is to provide your clients with a seamless payment system. You will want to ensure that clients can easily submit payment using a credit card, save their payment method, and set the system to invoice or autobill annually. There are a number of excellent payment systems that we recommend including:
Still have questions?
Check out our webinar about how you can increase revenue and achieve a positive ROI with Alt Legal Trademark Protection: Watch Your Revenue Grow: Monetizing Alt Legal’s Trademark Protection Service
While Alt Legal Trademark Protection is not a substitute for a dedicated watch service, it will help you uncover the most egregious conflicts. It’s important to keep in mind that no matter how thorough or expensive a watch service is, no watch service is foolproof. But having an alternative monitoring and watch solution like Alt Legal Trademark Protection can help you to identify many instances of infringement. Not only will it serve your clients well by helping identify infringement, but each instance of potential infringement is a business development opportunity for your firm to strengthen client relationships and bring in more revenue.
If you have any questions about Alt Legal Trademark Protection and how you can develop a successful subscription-based monitoring plan, our knowledgeable team is here to help. Reach out to us at [email protected]. Also, we would be pleased to offer you a free trial or demo of Alt Legal Trademark Protection. To sign up, click here.