lanework/trademark/README.md

Trademark — LANEWORK Registration

USPTO trademark registration for the LANEWORK word mark, tracked as a sub-project over multiple sessions: clearance, filing, prosecution, and post-registration maintenance. Sibling to strategy/ (the mark protects the brand that strategy work builds on); same document conventions — each document opens with a scope note and a dated line, prose is unwrapped, one line per paragraph or list item.

Status

Phase: cleared, not yet filed. Knockout clearance completed 2026-08-07 with a clear-to-file verdict and one yellow flag (WORKLANE, a transposed-mark ITU application in adjacent goods — see 01-clearance.md).

Next actions

• Settle the owning entity (individual vs LLC) — must be decided before filing; intent-to-use applications cannot be freely assigned later.
• Optional: one-hour attorney consult (~$500–1,500) focused on the WORKLANE citation risk and identification wording; filing pro se remains defensible.
• File the Section 1(b) intent-to-use application: standard-character word mark LANEWORK, Class 9 only, ID Manual-based identification, $350 (see 01-clearance.md ▸ Filing plan for exact wording constraints).
• After App Store launch: file the Statement of Use with the listing as specimen ($150).

Watch dates

• 2027-02-04 — WORKLANE (SN 99594941) Statement of Use deadline; check TSDR then and at each subsequent six-month extension (extendable to ~2029-08). If the ITU lapses, the only cloud on LANEWORK clears entirely.
• After registration: Section 8/15 declaration window at years 5–6; renewal every 10 years.

Documents

• 01-clearance.md — the 2026-08-07 knockout search record: queries run, conflict screen results, the WORKLANE analysis, the crowded-field argument, and the filing plan (start here)

Documents are added as the sub-project progresses, numbered in sequence: filing record, office-action responses, registration, maintenance.