Trade Dress Protection — prior art search before patent filing

I'm dealing with a situation and need some guidance.

prior art search before patent filing. I've been dealing with this for about 5 months now and the situation isn't improving.

I have already tried to resolve this directly but the other party is not cooperating.

Am I overthinking this or is this a real legal issue worth pursuing?

I went through almost the exact same thing.

I ended up filing with the appropriate government agency, which cost about $4-8 but saved me a lot more in the long run.

Not a lawyer, but I have direct experience with this.

The biggest mistake people make in this situation is having everything documented. I'd recommend keeping a detailed timeline instead.

I work in this industry and unfortunately this is very common. The good news is that when people actually push back with legal representation, companies usually settle.