Would hiring an attorney for filing a trademark application speed up the process

Hiring an attorney won't speed up the initial stages of filing the application and examining the application. However, using and attorney will reduce the chances that your application will have errors that could delay or even prevent the registration of your trademark. Frequently clients come with an application that they filed on thier own, which simply cannot be salvaged. They end up having to pay the filing fee all over again. Accordingly, its been my experience that the attorney fee is not an expense, but it is an investment due the reduction in errors and the higher quality trademark registration that results. An attorney can also perform a trademark availability search to ensure that your investment in the trademark is not wasted on a mark that won't be able to be registered.

With respect to the rest of your question, you would want to speak with an attorney about sending cease & desist letters to any infringers. A rational infringer will recognize that it doesn't make sense to invest in a trademark which they won't be able to use at a later time.

Yes, it's undoubtably reallyy worthwhile to hrie a lawyer to help you. No, a lawyer can't speed up the actual communication between the USPTO, and it'll still take about a year to a registration through, but now's a good time to apply because trademark applications track the economy, and when the economy's bad, trademark applications drop, so right now the USPTO has about a 3 month turnaround instead of 6 months turnaround for its replies.

The failure rate for trademark applications is quite high, and people make the same mistakes over and over. The most basic one is DIY. Applying for a trademark using the TEAS online system is maybe deceptively simple and quick (in fact, the system only gives you an hour to complete a registration), but the USPTO and the system itelf doesn't give advice, and the system assumes the user knows what they're doing. Working with a lawyer will almost certainly let you avoid mistakes, and it should go without saying that mistakes cost time and money and effort. You'd be best served by hiring an attorney well BEFORE you're ready to apply for trademark registration, especially before you invest in a mark that's ultimately not registerable, and especially because trademark descriptions can't be expanded so omissions aren't fixable, and products or services are lost.

You'd be well served to get practical business and legal advice from a lawyer about other things besides how to fill out the application itself. Have you formed the business entity in the right place with the ownership structure that's best for your desired purposes? Obtained the right domain name(s)? Chosen the right mark itself, in the right classes with the right descriptions and the right specimens? Copyrighted or patented any applicable intellectual property? A lawyer can help you make the best decisions before you make them, and not simply try to fix problems after they arise and it's too late to do as much good as they can.

Think preventative law - spending a little now to avoid having to spend much more later.

As for protecting your rights while your application is pending, if you've chosen the right mark, your mark makes a much more formidable threat to a would-be infringer than if you have a mark in process doomed to fail, which infringers may know better than you. A cease and desist letter sent from a lawyer and based on a strong mark is more likely to be more effective doing it yourself and using a weaker mark - that's the bottom line.

Disclaimer: Please note that this answer does not constitute legal advice, and should not be relied on, since each state has different laws, each situation is fact specific, and it is impossible to evaluate a legal problem without a comprehensive consultation and review of all the facts and documents at issue. This answer does not create an attorney-client relationship.

My colleague's responses cannot be improved upon. To echo their answers -- yes, it's cost effective to hire a trademark attorney before you make any branding decisions or apply to register whatever trademark rights you have already developed. That's not (just) self-serving advice, it is most certainly true.

I write only to dispel a misconception that you seem to be operating under. You note that "... until the trademark is processed and approved anyone can use the same TM." That is NOT true.

If you use a protectable trademark in commerce then you have developed trademark rights in whatever it is that you're using as a mark (be it a word, phrase, logo, sound, color, etc.). You do not have to register those rights with any government agency for your trademark rights to arise. They arise all by themselves under our common law. Moreover, you do not need to register those trademark rights before you enforce them against someone who is using, on related goods or services, the same mark or one that's confusingly similar to yours.

In short, you do not need to wait until your trademark rights are registered before you begin to enforce your rights. In fact, you MUST enforce your trademark rights (registered or not) or risk abandoning them to the rest of the marketplace. Note: Twitter is dealing with this precise issue at the moment.

So ... hire an intellectual property and begin branding your products properly from the get-go. You can follow my posts on trademark and other intellectual property issues on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dnball

You have received excellent responses to your question. I only want to add that a majority of my trademark clients tried to "do it themselves" and ended up spending more time and money than if they had just hired a trademark attorney to begin with. The money spent is money well spent and is an investment in your company's future.