Shed light on your federal trademark options.

Meet Jeremy Dowell

A Q&A With Equinomia Legal’s founder and only trademark attorney. The firm’s only attorney, actually.

Q: Let’s start with the basics—are you originally from Colorado?

A: Yep. I was born and raised in Canon City. I’ve moved around quite a bit since then. Went to college down in Arizona. First community college then Arizona State University. Spent a little time in Tokyo. I always seem to land back in Colorado though.

Q: Where did you go to law school?

A: Maine. And then I got an LL.M. in Environmental Law from Vermont Law and Graduate School. Basically I spent five or so years accumulating tons of student debt at a couple of great New England institutions.

Q: How long have you been practicing law?

A: I’ve been argumentative all my life. Does that count? It probably should. I started my own legal practice in Colorado Springs back in 2018. I did one divorce case essentially for free through the local modest means project. After that, 100 percent of my practice has been court-appointed guardian ad litem representation for kids in the juvenile justice system. Until recently when I launched the trademark practice.

Q: That actually is the perfect transition to my next question. Looking at your background, you started out advising a problem-solving court in a small district in Colorado, and then you transitioned to working as a guardian ad litem mostly in Colorado Springs. How does someone go from that to federal trademark law?

A: When I graduated from law school in 2010, the only thing I knew for sure is I wanted to work in the public interest. I didn’t even know what a guardian ad litem was until probably a year or two before I started my practice. I needed clients, and coincidentally the Office of the Child’s Representative needed private attorneys to take guardian ad litem cases here in Colorado Springs. GAL work appealed to me because of its public service orientation.

Q: Isn’t that a difficult line of work?

A: Very. Vicarious trauma, a decent size and steady caseload, and a lot of uphill battles. But every once in a while it feels like I might have moved the needle in a positive direction for a client and their family. That tends to make the difficult aspects a bit more manageable.

Q: Surely there are other areas of law that would align with juvenile delinquency better. Why trademarks?

A: The common thread is a desire to level the legal playing field. The kids I work with usually need as much advocacy as possible, in and out of the courtroom. It’s good work to provide that. I guess I see federal trademark law through a similar lens. It shouldn’t be something that only massive corporations get to use. Imagine being in business for years and then being told by some out-of-state megacorp that the name you’ve been using is infringing on their trademark. I’m trying to make that kind of scenario less likely by helping startups and established small businesses understand their federal trademark options better.

Q: So how did the trademark thing come about?

A: A friend of mine met a trademark attorney at a conference he was attending, and he told me to check out a sort of mentorship/training program she provided. So I did, and that’s how I found out that a trademark practice is a great way to work with creative people and dreamers. I didn’t even realize that’s something that would be interesting to me, but it really is. I want to help them keep their businesses open if I can.

Q: How can you do that?

A: First with information. A lot of startup founders and established small business owners don’t realize the benefits of a federal trademark. Or they think they’re already covered when they’re not. A big part of what trademark attorneys do involves educating business owners about what a federal trademark is, why it’s risky to go without one, and exactly what the benefits are. If they are interested in moving forward after getting a clearer understanding of these things, I can help with the registration process and with watching for conflicting new trademark applications after.

Q: And even though your practice is in Colorado, you can take clients in other states? I thought lawyers had to be licensed in a state to practice law in that state.

A: The short answer is yes. But since I’m a lawyer, get comfy and prepare for the longer answer. It’s true that lawyers generally have to be licensed in a particular state to practice law in that state. That would apply in my situation if I were attempting to advise clients on matters of state law in a state other than Colorado. But outside of Colorado, I strictly limit my practice to federal trademark law. Attorneys who are licensed, active, and in good standing in any U.S. state can represent clients from any state on federal trademark matters before the USPTO. They just can’t get into state law stuff unless they’re licensed in that state.

Q: Any fun facts about yourself that you’d like to share?

A: I’m so bad at answering these kinds of questions. Let’s see… I’m pretty sure I was smuggled into Hungary back in 2003, and I was mugged by carpet merchants in Istanbul in 2009. That might coincidentally have been the last time I traveled outside of the U.S. These days nothing as crazy or exciting as that happens to me, and I’m okay with that.

Q: One last question. What do you do when you’re not running your practice?

A: I’m a true solo lawyer, so the reality is I’m always running my practice. Maybe it’s possible to say I take time off in micro-doses — hanging out with my dog and two cats, listening to music, driving. Traffic doesn’t faze me. Unless I’m running late, which I almost always am.