You can file as 1b intent to use. Or simply design a logo as used in printed stationery (or on a website page) and submit that. We've done both and have been successful in getting trademarks approved.
Cool. Do you happen to know what constitutes actual "use" in the eyes of the trademark office when it comes to a website?
Content? User accounts? For a private site behind a login screen, how would they even know whether the service your trademark is being registered for even does what you say?
First, in general it is cheaper and quicker to file as actually using the trademark (1a). We've gotten trademarks with as little as a search page and a logo, literally, created with a cheap logo maker.
So if you file 1b (intent) that is fine but then you have to pay a fee and do another filing (iirc $100 more) when you finally use the trademark. And wait for approval. So if you can start to use it (in the class you have filed in) right away that is the cheaper route. Generally this is stuff that lawyers have little benefit in telling you since they get extra money for doing the extra work for you. And of course it is probably more ritualistically or legally correct. But if you are going to be lean you will have to cut corners and take some nominal chances. Important point.
Or operate the site that they see at something like
joeblow.mydomain.com instead of "www.mydomain.com". And give them that address.
Or simply give them screen shots actually even easier and say it's pw protected and only open to selected users.
There is stuff to know, not a big deal, but hard to summarize in a HN reply.
We got a trademark by putting up a site which literally was created by putting a logo on a customink.com shirt, screen grabbing, submit that to the trademark office and say that was the product. This is not a patent. It's a trademark for a logo or for words, right? All you have to do is show you are using it. In general.
Are you sure? I thought trademark protection was limited by field. So if you intended to create a clock called TeaTime, and you got a trademark on "TeaTime" as a t-shirt slogan, that wouldn't stop another company from getting a trademark for its TeaTime clock, because clocks are not normally competitors to t-shirts. Am I mistaken here?
curious: can entity B file an application after entity A for the same Standard Character Mark? Or does the USPTO only evaluate applications one at a time? Let's assume the time differential is a two weeks.
Quick answer: Goes by class of goods and services. So you can't have a filing for (in simplistic terms) "the same thing". You can file at any time though for something different.
Content? User accounts? For a private site behind a login screen, how would they even know whether the service your trademark is being registered for even does what you say?