December 11, 2025

Hello Reader,

Last week it finally snowed here.

You know that first real snow of the season, when everything goes quiet and the whole street turns into a postcard? I was looking out the window and noticed the most perfect snowman going up a few houses down.

It looked like something out of a movie—three perfectly stacked spheres, smooth sides, scarf just so, the little smile made of stones, carrot nose at the perfect angle. Later, when I drove past, there was even a tiny “baby snowman” next to it, complete with a little hat. It was almost too perfect.

But here’s how we knew it was real: earlier that day, we’d seen them outside, rolling up those giant snowballs in the cold. Pushing, packing, reshaping when the snow crumbled, adjusting when the base started to lean. From our window it didn’t look glamorous at all—it looked like work.

Hours later, all anyone could see was the finished product.
No one saw the effort, only the result.

It struck me that trademarks are like that snowman.

People see the final registration—“Oh, cool, they got the ®, must have been easy.” They don’t see the rolling, packing, and reshaping it took to get there. The searching, the strategy, the responses to the USPTO, the careful choice of classes, the specimen tweaks, the “that name won’t work, let’s pivot before we waste money.”

From the outside, it just looks like magic.

So, what does this have to do with trademarks?

When you only see the polished end result, it’s easy to assume:

• “I’ll just file something quickly online.”
• “I’ll copy what another brand did; how hard can it be?”
• “If it gets rejected, I’ll deal with it then.”

But the real protection comes from the unglamorous part—the rolling-the-snow part:

• Doing a proper search before you ever file
• Choosing a name with enough strength to stand out
• Picking the right owner and classes
• Planning long-term use, not just today’s product
• Responding strategically if the USPTO pushes back

Anyone can slap together a lopsided snowman in 10 minutes. But it won’t survive very long.

In the same way, anyone can throw a quick trademark application at the USPTO. You might get lucky. But if the foundation is off, all it takes is a conflict, a refusal, or a competitor with a better claim—and the whole thing starts to lean, crack, and eventually collapse.

How this plays out in real life

I see a few common patterns:

• Someone files on their own with a descriptive name. Months later, they’re shocked when the USPTO issues a refusal.
• Someone never does a search. After investing in branding, packaging, and a website, they discover another company already has rights.
• Someone uses the wrong owner entity. Years later, during an exit or investor due diligence, they have to scramble to fix it (and sometimes can’t).

From the outside, all anyone else sees is: “Their trademark got registered” or “Their application was abandoned.”

But behind the scenes, the difference between those two outcomes is a lot of quiet, unglamorous, intentional rolling of snow.

This Week’s Trademark Registrations 🎉

Here are a few of the trademarks we helped across the finish line recently:

If you’re thinking about building your own “perfect snowman” for 2026—a brand that stands tall and actually lasts—now is the time to start rolling the snow, not after everything is already built.

If you’d like help making sure your trademark foundation is solid before you invest more in branding, you can book a free call with my team here:

Stay warm out there,

J.J. Lee and the Trademark Lawyer Law Firm Team!

P.S. The sooner we start “packing the base” of your trademark, the smoother everything else becomes. Early strategy prevents expensive re-do’s later.

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