A small, one owner company prefers to expense as many trademark expenses as possible. What expenses must be amortized? For example, can all the legal work performed in filling out the applications etc. be expensed and only the actual trademark registration fee be amortized?

According to the CFA Financial Statement Analysis Book:

BRANDS AND TRADEMARKS
The cost of acquiring brands and trademarks in arm's-length transactions is capitalized. However, as in the case of other intangibles, US GAAP prohibits recognition of the value of the internally created brands or trademarks. IAS 38 also prohibits recognition of internally generated brands, mastheads, publishing titles, customer lists, and similar items. Some national accounting standards do permit recognition of such assets.

And after reading a little about other intangibles, it states that if internally developed, then legal fees incurred can be capitalized.

I would really like another person's point of view in this case.