Thanks.

Perhaps it will take a Bar Association from a different state to investigate using their unauthorized practice of law division to prosecute civilly, or perhaps criminally. I pressed one star above, but they deserve no star because their activity is unlawful.

In our case, but it looks like there are hundreds of complaints all over the web, my wife hired them to do her Trademark. They do not let clients know that what they do is the beginning of a process, but imply that it is going to be a completed process when the do their work on the Trademark. After taking fees, Legal Zoom do the preliminary filing.

Most important they do not inform the client to look to see if the Trademark on the USPTO site is in question after they file. The Trademark could then be declared invalid by USPTO unless a proper response is timely filed.

The client is not told this, and may invest later in great business expense under a name that is not their Trademark. If the USPTO notice letter is not received by a client from USPTO, the client knows nothing, and thus later can do nothing.

The fee charged by Legal Zoom ends up being much more than advertised. Additional fees are later surprisingly “needed,” to do more work originaly not made clear in the beginning. Our State Bar association Unauthorized Practice of law Division in our State (and State Attorney General) would have closed Legal Zoom down long ago. We are not in California. And maybe they will have to do it, as California seems to not care about Legal Zoom preying on its struggling public. And I cannot believe Legal Zoom is run by a Lawyer, and the California Bar does nothing. It is likely complaints have been filed.

I am not a Patent and Trademark attorney, and never did any Trademark work, and I was not in good health at the time, so my wife felt it necessary to seek Legal Zoom’s help. But her complaint is that she was kept in no man’s land on the whole process. Then dumped her in the end after the fee was received.

Another lawyer does not need to know the Trademark field to be able to witness improper activity, which activity could be seen as a very basic question on any ethics section of any State bar exam.

Legal Zoom’s website in the fine print, says that they are not providing legal services, when in reality they are, and are stepping into legal work in likely every instance.

If they defend that it is activity overseen by a lawyer, so not unauthorized practice of law, then the activity is then clearly Malpractice in perhaps thousands of instances. the complaints on the web are significant, and great in number, and one can figure that only one in a hundred who have been harmed have posted a review.Only certain people want to be bothered additionally, and simply take their Legal Zoom losses.

Other review sites are scary to post on, as they require detailed information on who the reviewer is. Fears of a slander or libel suit cause most to shy away about complaining on the web, or complaining to the Bar for that matter. I think you can see by this review that I know what I am talking about. All should stay away from Legal Zoom.

Those good reviews you see could just be “plants”. If there are this many bad reviews, a reasonable person should have common sense and stay away from them.They are playing the in between, staying in business in an odd way, taking in millions of dollars and causing likely considerable damages to thousands of people nationwide, for no reason other than profit and greed.

We are very sorry my wife hired Legal Zoom, as I now have to work hard to see what I can do to clean up their mess. My wife either should have done this Trademark work herself, waited till I felt well enough to do it, or hired a reasonably priced real lawyer.But she says Legal Zoom marketing on TV, and ads on the web pulled her in.

You have to be careful when you are paying prices below market value. There are a number of provisional patent application services on the web, and I have put together a do it yourself model, but whenever you are going to file without an attorney or agent involved there is risk. Sometimes folks have to cut corners because it is do it themselves or don’t do it at all, so there is no one-size-fits-all advice that anyone can provide.

What I would suggest is you read the pages of IPWatchdog and become as familiar with patenting as possible. Consider getting Patent It Yourself, which you can get from any bookstore. Also consider getting this book by Professor Janice Mueller:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0735578311?tag=ipwatchdogcom&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0735578311&adid=15FBEFC7BDFSRX3YG8WY&

In terms of who can help, I would recommend you gravitate toward a patent agent or patent attorney. Consider finding a local inventors group and see if the inventors can recommend anyone.

Best of luck to you.

-Gene