Latest / Earn Your Leisure / EYL #303: Master Trademarks and Copyrights: Make Millions, & Protect Your Brand with Rosezena Pierce

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EYL #303: Master Trademarks and Copyrights: Make Millions, & Protect Your Brand with Rosezena Pierce · Earn Your Leisure

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
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  Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador
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  Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
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  Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
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  Speaker 1: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States
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  Speaker 1: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border
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  Speaker 1: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over
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  Speaker 1: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you
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  Speaker 1: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported. You will
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  Speaker 1: never return. But if you register using our CBP home
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  Speaker 1: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
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  Speaker 1: Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws,
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  Speaker 1: border and families will be protected.
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  Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.
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  Speaker 3: All right, guys, welcome back. Yes, Yes, yes, we have
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: a special guest today. Role is Zena.
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: Yes.
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  Speaker 3: J Pierce sake everything correctly, Yes, she did? All right.
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  Speaker 3: Better known as the biz Lawyer, on Instagram large social
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  Speaker 3: media following. You have like one hundred and fifty thousand
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  Speaker 3: followers like.
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  Speaker 5: That, like light weight, Like I have fifty thousand people.
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  Speaker 5: That's a lot of people, for sure.
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  Speaker 4: I'm sure y'all got like a million followers.
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  Speaker 5: I'm not sure what we have, but that's a major basically,
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  Speaker 5: like yeah, right.
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  Speaker 3: So a leading trademark attorney, the CEO of R J.
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  Speaker 3: Pierce Law Group PC in Chicago. She's fouled over five
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  Speaker 3: thousand trademarks in her career and was ranked number fifteen
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  Speaker 3: in the US trademarking Yes lawyer rankings. Is that correct?
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  Speaker 4: Yes, out over thirty three thousand trademark attorneys in the country.
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  Speaker 3: Congratulating gratulations, Thank you Cook. So, yeah, you've dedicated to
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  Speaker 3: teaching trademarking the community. So this is going to be
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: an interesting conversation. We've covered it a few times, but
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  Speaker 3: it's always good to kind of have a refresher and
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  Speaker 3: touch about touch different topics that we may not have
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  Speaker 3: spoken about before. So, first and foremore, thank you for John.
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  Speaker 3: I appreciate it.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you all for having me, thank you all for
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: sharing your platform with me.
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  Speaker 5: It's a pleasure, it's a pleasure.
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  Speaker 3: All right, so let's start. Where does it start. You're
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: from Chicago.
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  Speaker 4: I am from Chicago, the West side of the West Side.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, you're one of the few people everybody that we
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: you know, we have a lot of relationships in Chicago.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: It's a great market for us. But everybody that I've
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: ever met from Chicago has been from the South Side.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: I understand that kind of you might be one of
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: the first people I've ever met there on.
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  Speaker 4: The West Side. Next time you're from to Chicago, I
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: could probably take you on a tour or something. Yeah,
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: we're going to be out there.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: You know what Ross Mack is, No, that's he's from Chicago.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: He's a financial influence. I always he used to work on.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: Chicago's a vibe like Lake Michigan.
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  Speaker 2: We like it.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a beautiful city, and sometimes it gets overshadowed
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: by the negativity, and you know, people will have you
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: thinking like we're walking outside stepping on the over dead bodies,
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: and that's really not the case at all. And it's
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: so crazy because you know, people are always surprised that
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: I'm from the West Side of Chicago, because I feel
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: like even from being from the West Side, we get
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: the worst slack ever. But I know some great people
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: doing some great things, and I do have to be transparent.
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  Speaker 4: I did leave Chicago in twenty seventeen, so I live
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: in Atlanta, Georgia now, but you know, it's still an
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: amazing Chicago will always be home to me. Every time.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: I always correct people and be like, yeah, I live
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: in Atlanta, but I'm from Chicago, Chicago shout out to yeah.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So all right, so yeah, so how do you even
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: get started in becoming a lawyer and why specifically trademark
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: law as opposed to any other type of law. Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: So, growing up on the West Side out of Chicago,
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  Speaker 4: I was exposed to the criminal justice system very early
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  Speaker 4: through my father and my brothers because they were you know,
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  Speaker 4: arrested and so we would have to, you know, go
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  Speaker 4: to the county jail or go to court to see
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: what's going to happen with them. And then my dad
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  Speaker 4: ironically started working for a law firm as an investigator.
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  Speaker 4: And so around five years so I knew I wanted
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: to be a lawyer just being in that environment. I
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: didn't know what type of law I wanted to do
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  Speaker 4: until I got a little older, around high school, I
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: figured I'm want to do something international business because I
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: wanted to travel a lot. And then eventually I decided
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: and undergrad I wanted to pick intellectual property law, and
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: I picked trademark law. The crazy thing is, though my
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: dad always had in his mind that I was going
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: to be a criminal attorney. He like, I know all
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: the judges at the county jail, like, you know, I'm
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: gonna get you so many clients. And I was just like,
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  Speaker 4: I don't want to do that. And even after being
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: out of law school for the first three to four years,
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: my daddy wild still call me and be like, I
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: know somebody in jail right now.
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  Speaker 3: You could go help you go to law school.
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  Speaker 4: I went to the law school at the John Marshall
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  Speaker 4: Law School in Chicago, which is now.
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  Speaker 3: U S Okay, yeah, so all right. And so you
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: decide that you want to do trademarking law, you get out,
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  Speaker 3: you start working for a firm, or you start how
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: do you start your professional career?
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  Speaker 4: So I had a very ironic situation by the time.
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  Speaker 4: So I took all my intellectual property classes, got straight a's,
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  Speaker 4: finished law school with like a three point five GPA,
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  Speaker 4: but had no job offers. And by the way, at
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: the time my kids, I had three kids. I have
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: three kids, and my son was eleven, my daughter was seven,
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: and I had a five month old baby. And so
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: I was studying for the bar with three kids at
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: home and took the bar, passed it on the first
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: time time, first time, shout that thank you so much.
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  Speaker 4: I was even on an intellectual property law review and
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: it was fourteen of us on there, and only two
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  Speaker 4: of us was black, and we were the only two
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  Speaker 4: that had no job offers, and so that was very
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: depressing because it's like, you know, when you're leaving law school,
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  Speaker 4: it's like being drafted into the pros, like everybody got
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  Speaker 4: a job offer and I was, and you know, the
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: other person who was my color did not have a
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: job offer. And so I just remember I took the
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  Speaker 4: bar in February, the end of February. We didn't give
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: the results into April. But it was my first time
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: just sitting at home and being still and because I've
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: been working and going to school since I was fourteen
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: years old, and so I was just like, oh my god,
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  Speaker 4: what am I going to do if I passed? If
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: I failed. I found out I passed in April, and
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: then I had to take a professional responsibility course where
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: I got sworn in with the bar with a professor
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: and I was like, you know what, I don't have
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: any job offers. I realized I love being at home
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: when my kids come home from school, but I always
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: wanted to be a lawyer. So what does my life
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: just stopped because I don't have a job offer? And
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: he said, well, what practice area do you want to
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: practice in? And I said I want to do intellectual
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  Speaker 4: property law, which at the time, back in twenty thirteen,
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  Speaker 4: I thought I had to either work for a big
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  Speaker 4: corporation or a big law firm because they were the
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  Speaker 4: ones investing in intellectual property. And he said, you know
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  Speaker 4: you will go a long way serve and a underserved
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: and I said, wait, I don't want to do criminal
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  Speaker 4: law because I have a history with that just personally.
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: And he was like, no, Like, who is underserved in
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  Speaker 4: a practice area you want to practice in? And it
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: took me a moment to think about it, and I
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: said small business owners and he said, yes, you'll go
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  Speaker 4: a long way serving now and I was like, you
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  Speaker 4: know what, You're so right, and so I just started
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  Speaker 4: my own law practice. I didn't like to see who
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: wasn't planning it that day to be an entrepreneur and
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: start my own business. But out of necessity, I needed
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: to start a business because I had to feed those kids,
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: and people were calling my phone like I need your help.
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  Speaker 4: They knew I was a lawyer. So it started. It
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: started off slow, but then you know, once I got
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: on instat brown, met a social media manager, things being
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  Speaker 4: to pick up and take off, and I just started
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  Speaker 4: to hire more people, women that look like me, women
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  Speaker 4: that had kids. Then I have job offers in a
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  Speaker 4: legal space and offer them a job. And then eleven
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  Speaker 4: years later, now we're ranked number forty out over twenty
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: eight thousand trademark law firms in a country. And actually
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: it's so crazy because you know, out of that list,
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: they published the top one hundred, and I applied to
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: fifty of those law firms to work at, and now
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: my firm ranks above them. So I know that's a
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: long answer to a short question, but God's as.
• 8:36
  Speaker 6: God's playing, I want them back to twenty thirteen because
• 8:39
  Speaker 6: this is obviously almost the beginning of Instagram.
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  Speaker 5: We're talking about information not being as rarely as available
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: right is pre euil the market for trademark law.
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  Speaker 6: I mean, how aware are the clients that you're trying
• 8:55
  Speaker 6: to actually acquire right, Because most people.
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: Are I would assume, are like, why do I need that?
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  Speaker 6: Why is it important to my business? How are you
• 9:02
  Speaker 6: getting the clients? And how are you educating?
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  Speaker 4: At the time, not aware at all. And I used
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  Speaker 4: my social media at the time when I got on Instagram,
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  Speaker 4: I didn't know any other lawyer on the platform doing
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: what I was doing and just talking about and educating,
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: and I knew I had to go where the people
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: was right. But also in twenty fourteen twenty fifteen, I
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: wasn't only just doing trademarks. I was doing business law.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: I was doing contracts. I was doing entertainment deals, anything
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: like I can get my hands on as it related
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: to business. But I knew I had to educate the people.
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: And it stuck with me what the professor said, You'll
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: go a long way serve and to underserved. And at
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: this time, you know, I think, you know, Barack Obama's
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: still in office or whatever, and it's black entrepreneurship. It's
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: becoming relevant, but it's not as heavy as what it
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: is today. And so I'm like, you know, there's conferencess,
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: there are small events that's happening, but not a lot,
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: especially in my city, Chicago. So I was like, I
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: just got to go where people are. And I remember
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: twenty sixteenth the Black Women's Expo in Chicago, and they
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: did it a lot, and so I said, you know,
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: I got to get people to my table to just
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: talk to me. And so I rented like two of
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: those big cheers that's now very popular baby shower chairs,
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: but at the time, no one was using those royalty chairs.
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: And I was like, if I get the people to
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: my booth, I can talk to them and explain to
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: them why they need my services. And I remember being
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: at home and I never thought I leave Chicago, but
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: that day, at that event, it changed my life because
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: women were approaching a booth like girlfriend where you get
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: through chairs from I need throm chairs in my living room.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: What And I was like, oh, you know, they're just rentals.
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: But I'm the law firm. We offer business services, and
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: you know, if you have a business, you need your trademark.
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: And women saying we'll probably gradwork for the government. And
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: now there's nothing wrong with working, and you know, I worked,
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: and everything in corporate America helped transfer my skills in
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: my business. But it was just like a sense of
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: pride with that and dismissive and it was like, you
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: don't do wheels, you don't do divorces. Oh no, we
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: can't talk, but let me know where you got them
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: shares from, though, And that's when I knew that I
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: had to go a place where it was just like
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: black entrepreneurship was okay, right, or black excellence was just okay.
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: And every time I had visited Atlanta, I felt that
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: right because I was going down for an event or
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: something like that. So for me, it was just going
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: where the people were and meeting them where they were
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: and then trying to educate them and provide education.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: So all right, so let's get into this education bag.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: So why do business owners need to trademark their business
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: before launching their business?
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: So I always ask people, will you build a house
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: on land you don't own? I'm gonna ask you, guys,
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: will you build a house on land you don't own?
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: I didn't no, right, right cause it makes sense, right,
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: You're gonna before we build houses in America? Right, we
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: go and we do a title search on a land
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: and make sure sure no one owns the lands. There's
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: no leans on the land or anything like that, because
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: if we go and we just start building the house
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: on land and we haven't cleared the land, the owner
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: of the land can come tear that house down. Right.
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: It's the same equivalent when it comes to building a
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: business on a brand name and you don't own the name. Right.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: And so being that I have been practicing this law,
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: but ten years I have seen where people have and
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: that'sted their four to one k plans or took out money,
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: you know, from their retirement to invest in product and
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: marketing material, only for it to be torn down by
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: the rifle owner.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: So I tell people, before we build brands and we
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: build businesses, we want to make sure we're clearing the
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: name and we're actually owning that name. So everything that
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: we're building on top of it is ours now.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 12:47
  Speaker 6: So if we got to get the name to make
• 12:49
  Speaker 6: sure that we own it, what where are we going
• 12:51
  Speaker 6: to search for this?
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: Like?
• 12:52
  Speaker 6: Are there specific sites? I feel like most people have
• 12:55
  Speaker 6: no idea. They'll just type in trade. But whatever Google
• 12:57
  Speaker 6: tells them that's what we're using. It might not be
• 12:59
  Speaker 6: the most accurate things. So what sites are we.
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: Going through to ensure that if we use this name,
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: we can own this name.
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: That's a great question. So what I would first start
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: is with the USPTO dot gov and make sure it
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: says dot gov and not dot com, right, because there
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: can be some you know, fraudulent sites and things like that.
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: So start with the USPTO dot gov. And you want
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: to start broad because you want to see does anybody
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: own the name? But also too, this is where it's
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: important to hire an attorney because under the law, it's
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: not about what's the same, but what can be deemed
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: confusingly similar. So if you go to the USPTO dot
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: gov and you search Starbucks, right, probably nothing will come
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: up and you'll be like, oh, I'm good, I can
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: go start a coffee company. Well, Starbucks is gonna have
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: a problem with that, because under the law it's not
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: about what's the same, but what can be deemed confusingly similar.
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: So first I would start there, and then I would
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: start with Google, and then possibly social media handles as well,
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: and then just searching domains. But it's also important that
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: we understand the nuances of the law. Right, there's forty
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: five different classes under trademark law. And sometimes you can
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: have brands that co exist in a marketplace. That's why
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: we have the Chocolate, Doft Soap, Mac Makeup, Mac Computer,
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: Delta Airline, Delta Falsett, Pandora Jewely, Pandora Music. So your
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: name might come up, but if it's a plummet industry
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: and you're in a beauty industry, you make and coexists. Right.
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: But where a lot of times people fall short entrepreneurs
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: is they will say, Okay, my name is available, I'm
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: gonna file the name, and they just pick a class
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: and now they think they owned that name in its entirety.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: Recently I seen an interview from Caesar from Black Ink,
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: and he talked about how he actually was surprised when
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: he had his dog find an issue that he was
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: let go from a show, the show that he thought
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: he owned because he created black Ink and a black
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: Ink brand. Well, what Caesar didn't know was and he
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: filed his own trademarks too, and he thought he had
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: his trademarks register, but he filed him for tattooning services
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: and I think for a peril. But when he did
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: his deal with Viacom with the reality show, they went
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: and fouled the name for entertainment services and so there's
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: a big difference there. So it's important that you understand
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: those nuances and so inside.
• 15:15
  Speaker 6: That we shouldn't do this on our own. So some
• 15:18
  Speaker 6: people will say, I can do I can figure this
• 15:20
  Speaker 6: out by myself.
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: Get an attorney.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: Get an attorney. I have about five thousand clients, and
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: a fourth of them either did themselves first and then
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: they had to come to us later, or they went
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: to one of these in internet sourcing companies right, thinking
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: they're hiring someone who will guide them and lead them.
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: But they're just really data transfer companies where they'll take
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: your data and transfer it into the information system.
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: So why isn't a loco corporation enough to have for
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: ownership in the business.
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: And so that is also a great question. And the
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: reason is is because as business owners, I always say
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: educated entrepreneur is a successful one. We have to understand
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: the different legal vehicles and why they're here, right, And
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: a lot of times people think, oh, if I got
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: an LLC, I'm good. But the LLC might not even
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: be the best entity type for you, right. But what
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: we need to understand is what comes with that formation
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: of an entity. So under the law, when we file
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: our entities, whether it's an LLC or a corporation or partnership,
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: under the law under our Secretary of State, we're forming
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: in it within our state. But that says that by
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: us creating that company is going to give us a
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: legal shield to protect us, the individual owner, from any
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: legal liability that is to arise out of our business.
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: We also may get some tax benefits from that as well. Right,
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: But nowhere in the law that it says it is
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: going to give you exclusive ownership rights to that name. Right,
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: So you could form your business, let's say in the
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: state of Illinois, but if someone owns the trademark and
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: Illinois said, you can have this business. But if someone
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: owns the trademark, let's say in the state of Florida,
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: they can shut your business down in Illinois. So that's
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: why it's important as business owners we understand these different
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: legal vehicles and how they work and how they're set
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: up to protect us. The trademark is there to protect
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: our name, our logos, our slogans, and not a lot
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: of people know. But you can also trademark a sound
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: as well, Like you got mail interesting, so you brought.
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: Up the state things.
• 17:27
  Speaker 6: So now it makes me wonder there's a difference between
• 17:31
  Speaker 6: filing the trademark and the state. Can we file federally
• 17:35
  Speaker 6: as well, so like talk about the nuances and that
• 17:38
  Speaker 6: that's a.
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: Great question as well, because you can file your trademark
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: on the state level, right, but when you file it federally,
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: you get a lot more coverage. And I always say
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: technology is moving faster than the law. So back in
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: the day you used to have to prove interstate commerce
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: in order to give federal registration. So a lot of
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: people use the they lost system to file their trademarks
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: when before the internet, right, because now that we have
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: the Internet, as long as your business is a ww
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: dot com or you're on social media and you're offering
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: your services or your products to anyone across the royal
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: basically now you have interstate commerce. So with the Internet,
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: it kind of took that away. So you want to
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: go for the broader coverage most as possible because you know,
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: there is a case and it arise out of the
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: state of Illinois and it was in the nineteen fifties
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: where there was this restaurant, a small mom and pop restaurant,
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: and they sold burger shakes and fries, right, And so
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: then there was a Florida restaurant that adopted the same
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: name and they sold burger shakes and fries as well.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: And so the Florida restaurant began to grow very fast
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: and very rapidly. And there was supposed to be an
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: agreement that they were number coming to the state of Illinois.
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: They know money talk and bull Craft walk, and they
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: came in the state of Illinois. Well, the state of
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: Illinois restaurant filed a declaratory judgment under federal law to
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: kick them out of the state of Illinois. And the
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: court asked them in the state of Illinois, they were
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: the first users, right. The court accid them, well, how
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: far does your customers come to your restaurant? And this
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: is a restaurant. It's like in Matuon, Illinois, which is
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: like maybe like two hundred miles south of Chicago, but
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: it's right off a major highway in Illinois. And they said, well,
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: they come from about a twenty mil radius. And so
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: the court said, okay, well, this company cannot come within
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: a twenty mil radius of your restaurant. But now you
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: can't go outside the twenty mil radius of your restaurant
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: because they have the federal registration an unfortunately federal Trump
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: state so act. Do you know, like they boxed them in.
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: But what's the name of that company? Can you guys imagine,
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: like what was the name of that restaurant?
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: McDonald's.
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: That's my first story.
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: Now McDonald's. That's the other one, Burger King, Burger KINGK.
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: So if you google right now the original Burger King,
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: it's still gonna come up today and it's twenty twenty
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: four and that restaurant in Withsoon, Illinois is still open
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: as the original Burger King.
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: Oh, so explain the story again. Burg There was another
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: burger King before Burger.
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: King, exactly in Illinois. So the big corporation Burger King,
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: it originated out of Florida, Florida, out of the state
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: of Florida, but the state of Illinois Burger King, they
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: were the first users, but they didn't have federal registration.
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: So that's why it's so important that.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: So are they still there.
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: They're still there to this day.
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: It's one store.
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: It's just one store because they can never grow outside
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: of that twenty mile radius.
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: They could put like four stores inside the twenty miles,
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: but they don't make sense.
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: They wouldn't even know.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: There's one Burger King that is not Burger King. It's
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: a restaurant, all fast food.
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: It's a restaurant and they burger shakes and fries and
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: it's called the original Burger King. So if you ever
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: google Burger King, Matton, Illinois.
• 21:07
  Speaker 6: It will come up so with the I mean, that's
• 21:10
  Speaker 6: an incredible story, but it makes more sense to file
• 21:12
  Speaker 6: federally or is it?
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: I think it's more expensive as well.
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: Well it is, but sometimes the state registration is not
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: as it's effective and impact of as you need it
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: to be, especially in a day and age where the
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: internet is here. Right and see another thing why that
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: story is so important is because trademarks are legacy builders.
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: A trademark can outlive you. Coca Cola been registered since
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: eighteen ninety three, Mercedes since nineteen oh three, right, and
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: so a trademark can like so the original people who
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: created that Burger King, that was a family owned business,
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: so imagine what they could have did and expanded with
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: their company. But they are now attached to this judgment
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: out of federal court since the nineteen sixties, so it
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: limited their legacy. So I always tell people you want
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: to secure your brand, not only to secure your bag,
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: but you want to secure your brand so you can
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: secure your legacy.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: So what's difference between trademark and copyright.
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: So the difference between a trademark and a copyright is
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: a copyright is a creative expression fixed out of a
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: tangible medium.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: A trademark is a source identifier for consumers to relate
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: back to where product or service come from. So I'll
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: break it down for you. So, like a copyright, you
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: can protect a photograph, a painting, a picture, you know,
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: songs are it cannot be in your head, but it
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: has to be fixed into a tangible medium. But yes,
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: dark hand the coming interviewer, Chicago. But okay, yeah, right,
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: but and so here's the thing with a copyright. A
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: lot of entrepreneurs don't understand that whoever the creator of
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: the copyright is, that is, who is the owner of
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: the copyright. Under the law, it said the creator who
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: birthst the creation is the copyright owner. Now why is
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: that important? Because as entrepreneurs, we hire graphic designers, we
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: hire photographers, we hire people to come in and create
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: creative works for our businesses. Right. Have you ever hired
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: someone to create a logo for you?
• 23:23
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah right, and by panel you think you own that logo?
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: It sure's right? Well I know different but yeah, yeah
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: right most people. And it sounds like it makes sense.
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: But unfortunately, because they created the logo, they're actually the
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: copyright owner of the logo unless you have them transfer
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: their rights in writing. Now some people think well it
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: could be an or No, it has to be in writing,
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: and so usually you would have them transfer through a
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: work for hire agreement. So like a company like Disney
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: who is creating amazing copyrights and multiple copyrights, the company
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: is not creating, it's actually people there, but all of
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: those people who are creating it, they're on work for
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: hire agreement.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: So okay, So how do you increase the value of
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: a trademark?
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: I always tell people you have to start with great
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: quality products and services for your the value of your
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: trademarks to increase and go up. Right, you know, people,
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: I'm a brand buyer, right, I like certain brands, Like
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: it's certain soaps that I use. I'm only gonna use
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: a certain type of deodorant. Right, Like I'm a brand
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: buyer and a lot of people are right, Like some people,
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: I don't drink pop anymore. We call it pop from Chicago, right,
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: What do y'all call it here in New York?
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: Soda?
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah? Okay? So are you guys like a Coca Cola
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: or a Pepsi?
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: Kind of a man, it's gonna be telling. If I
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: had to, probably be coke it cold?
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: Oh my god, you probably gonna get in trouble because
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: you're from New York, right, And they like it's a
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: real battle with Pepsi and coke?
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: What about you?
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: Well, if you if you had to, because I don't
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: drink it either, But I have a pick if I
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: have to pick one.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: If I had to, I don't know. I would probably
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: say cold Cola because I think that the brand is
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: stronger than Pepsi. I just identify that as a stronger
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: like I don't eat me, I don't eat fast food.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: If I had to, I would probably McDonald's is a
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: stronger brand than Wendy's.
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: Right. So the fact that he just has that mentally
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: in his mind that these brands are stronger, right, it's
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: because of how they are boldly and atorously representing the
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: brand in the marketplace, and as business owners, that's what
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: we have to do in order to increase the value. Right.
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: You guys did a great job with increasing the value
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: of earning your leisure right, and so now people want
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: to be attached to it, they want to be a
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: part of it, and so it's just like you gotta
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: just like you know, for me, when I picked the
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: biz Lawyer as an Instagram handle, I was just trying
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: to pick a cute name on Instagram. But because my
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: services is great, my team is great. Now people want
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: to make sure when they do their trademarks they do
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: it with the bus Lawyer because they know the type
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: of quality of services is going to come with it,
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: and so that increases our revenue and our value.
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: This is something that we've learned. We filed a bunch
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: of trademarks.
• 26:12
  Speaker 6: You talk about the time it takes, right, So obviously
• 26:15
  Speaker 6: we got the first step, we get the attorney, we
• 26:16
  Speaker 6: did the search. Talk about the time it takes. I
• 26:19
  Speaker 6: know you brought up first rights to that's important too, thanks.
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah, can we get into that a little bit, Yeah,
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: for sure.
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: So first thing first, you want to do the search,
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: and you know a lot of times people, it's important
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: you do a search not only with the usbto dot gov,
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: but also to see who is using the trademark in
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: the marketplace or whatever, because common law rights can fall
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: into play as well. But then once we do the search,
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: we actually will issue an opinion letter with the search results.
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: We'll go through the opinion letter. You know, one thing
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: that I think is very different about our firm outside
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: of the fact that it's probably been you know, black
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: owned by me the female. But one thing we do
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: is we counsel and advise our clients on the search results.
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: Not a lot of people do that. They do the
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: research and they just file the application or they don't. Right.
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: We tell our clients and also too, if we see challenges,
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: we create strategy on how we can possibly win a trademark,
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: especially if the client already has invested you know, thousands
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: of dollars into the brand. But once we do that,
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: we get in on a file. Now here's the thing.
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: The trademark application used to take about three to four
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: months for the government to review it. But now because
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: after COVID, I feel like a lot of people was
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: empowered to become entrepreneurs. But also a lot of people
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: are more educated, so people have filed trademarks. Actually, during COVID,
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: the most trademarks ever in history was filed. Okay, yes,
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: and so now it has pushed the government review time
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: back to actually eight to nine months, So now it
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: takes them eight to nine months just to review the application.
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: Once they review the application, they can either approve it
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: or issue office action. If they approve it, it goes to
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: what's called publication for opposition. Now, publication for opposition allows
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: anyone in the public thirty days to oppose your trademark.
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: This is why it's important that we file trademarks with
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: integrity and also too we watch our trademarks because if
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: you file a trademark like I'm Coco Chanel Chanell is
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: gonna come and oppose the trademark and probably send you
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: a c syent desist letter right away when they file
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: that you filed the trademark. But the good thing about
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: it is is that as a brand owner, you want
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: to watch your trademark because people can be filing things
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: confusingly similar to your brand as well, and the government
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: they try to stop things, but they sometimes they let
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: things through as well. So once you go through that phase.
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: If no one opposed the trademark, you can have registration
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: within twelve weeks from the thirty day deadline. So that
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: can take about nine to eighteen months right now to
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: get a trademark register. I'm sorry, twelve to eighteen months
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: to get it registered. But let's go back. If the
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: government takes issue with application, they can issue a office
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: action bless you. The office action can require either substantive
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: response or non substantive response. If it's a non substantive response,
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: that means something minor is going on and a government
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: wants you to fix it, and that's no problem. But
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: if it's a substantive issue, the government is refusing it
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: on a likelihood of confusion or failure to function as
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: a trademark or the trademark being merely descriptive, and you
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: will have to present legal arguments with the legal brief
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: to argue why the person should have the trademark.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: Well, don't talk about the different categories of trail. You
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: touched on it briefly, but like when you go into detail,
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: like somebody's trademark or something like if it's merchandise, that
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: doesn't necessarily mean that like TV is different, right, so
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: they should kind of be aware of that going into it,
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: so they don't use trademark one thing. They trademark everything, right,
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: talk about like why that's important, that.
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: Is so important? And I was just you know, I
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: always shut a story because I I think it's a lesson.
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: Actually two stories. So one Lebron James filed a trademark, right,
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: and he foiled well, Taco Tuesday. He did file Taco Tuesday,
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: but Taco Tuesday was rejected for a failure to function
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: as a trademark, which I totally disagree with the government
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: on that because I do think it functioned as a
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: trademark and the way Lebron was using it, right, Lebron
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: should have hired Mean to argue that for him. I
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: was ready for it too, And actually there now, I
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: think Taco Tuesday actually fails to function as a trademark.
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: And a restaurant said it because all types of restaurants
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: can say Taco Tuesday. So when it's fell into function
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: as a trademark, it just means that people in the
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: marketplace are readily talking about it. Right. That's why Birdman said,
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: if I knew what I knew, then I would have
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: trademarked the word blink blink, because once the words are viral,
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: it kind of loses its source identifier and it can't
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: relate back to where the sources come from. That's why
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: Black Lives Matter it's not a trademark, it's not registered.
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: That's why when that whole story came out about Kanye
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: West and these guys are gonna stop Kanye West from
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: using White Lives Matter, it was just a whope of
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: like it was, it was all wrong. One the guys
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: wasn't gonna get White Lives Matter because if you can't
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: trademark Black Lives matter, who can trademark White Lives Matter?
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: But also too, Kanye actually could approved part of your
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: youth if he wanted to fight this case. But then
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: also the guys just fouled the application they found I
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: think like Kanye showed up wherever he was with can
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: this all was like on October third? They foiled the
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: application on October four, and then every news story ran
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: with it like they're gonna stop him, and it's like,
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: what did I just tell you guys? This take the
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: government earnest?
• 31:40
  Speaker 5: What's up?
• 31:40
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  Speaker 6: or more happily fulfilled life. P and C Bank Brilliantly
• 33:17
  Speaker 6: Boring since eighteen sixty five. Brilliantly Boring since eighteen sixty
• 33:21
  Speaker 6: five is a service mark of the PNC Financial Service Group, Inc.
• 33:25
  Speaker 6: P and C Bank National Association Member FDIC.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from El Salvador
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas. Man of Venezuelan charged with
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: crossings are at the lower levels ever recorded, and over
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: were here illegally, you're next you will be fine nearly
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned and deported, you will
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: never return. But if you register using our CBP home
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Do what's right.
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: Leave now.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: Under President Trump America's laws, border and families will be protected.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: He wants to look at the application. Just because you
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: file an application does not mean it's registered. Just like
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: the guy recently who just said I just found no Diddy,
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: I own no Diddy. Now, no, you don't own no Diddy.
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: Now you just file the application that Actually you just
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: wasted your money because you cannot file a living being's trademark,
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: I mean their name without their consent. You could go
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: and look at all these attempts to file a Donald
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: Trump trademark or an Obama trademark and if because you
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: have to have consent of the living individual and if
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: they die in their legacy, you have to get consent
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: from their estate. That's why Bob Marley family has been
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: able to sue so many people. Now, to answer your question,
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: it's so important that you make sure that you cover
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: all the classes because Lebron James did file a trademark
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: and it's for I am more than an athlete, and
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: the trademark office actually approved it. Well, there is actually
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: a trademark that's registered for more than an athlete right now.
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: It's from a nonprofit organization. And it looks like, well
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: they did it themselves, right, and so their trademark was
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: actually registered. So then here come Lebron James in one
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: class though they registered in one class. Lebron James then
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: files the trademark and all these other different classes, right,
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: and a trademark office approved because remember I told you
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: certain trademarks can coexist in the marketplace. Well, now that
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: person is trying to sue Lebron James for thirty three
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: million dollars, right, but does the registration support the thirty
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: three million dollar claim? And I don't know what happened,
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: but it looks like the person may have thought when
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: they foiled their application that they were also covering apparel
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: because it says charitable services for selling T shirts, right,
• 36:15
  Speaker 4: and they found a for service class, But apparel actually
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: falls in a different class. So it's so very important. Actually,
• 36:23
  Speaker 4: out of the forty five classes one through thirty four
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: is products, and then thirty five through forty five is services.
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: So it's very important that you understand these nuances so
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: you can know how to fully cover yourself.
• 36:37
  Speaker 6: Yeah, educational services, business services. And they'll kill me if
• 36:40
  Speaker 6: I didn't say that bling bling is Lil Wayne's word.
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: Oh sure, so it's a little one. Well, well I
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: just prefer so. Yeah, but see what as the source? Right?
• 36:51
  Speaker 5: Exactly? He was. He was tight about it that he
• 36:53
  Speaker 5: didn't trademarket.
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: But yeah, because I want to, I want to one
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: quick question about that. It's related before we space topic.
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: If somebody does trademark bling bling, right, or somebody does
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: trademark no Diddy or pause something like that, how do
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: you really make money from that? Though? I saw I
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: was always curious about, like, let's say you actually were
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: able to TRADEMARKT. People going to say it all day
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: every day. Right, You're not gonna be able to physically
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: get paid for any time somebody says that, right, So
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: does it really even mean anything if somebody did TRADEMARKT,
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: So what.
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: It would mean? So for instance, if safe so no
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: Diddy is it can't happen, but safe, for instance, it
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: could happen and he could put it on T shirts, right,
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: and he could start selling T shirts and apparel. Now
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: he can stop anyone from selling T shirt. You can't
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: stop us from saying no Diddy out our mouth though, right,
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: So it's not like you own the power of the word,
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: but you own it as it relates to that a
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: particular class.
• 37:48
  Speaker 5: So like, let's go, let's use bling Blane.
• 37:50
  Speaker 6: If somebody tries to put that in an ad for
• 37:53
  Speaker 6: a commercial, that would be a situation where you're about
• 37:57
  Speaker 6: to see some assists or you could have royalties paid
• 37:59
  Speaker 6: or how would that work.
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: So it will depend how they are using it, right,
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: Because if they're using like bling blean, but they're using
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: like the copywritten music that you know, cash Money created, right,
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: then that will be like they have to get clearance
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: on the copyright and things like that. But maybe if
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: they're getting a whole different person saying bling bling and
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: they're saying it in a different manner, that comes up
• 38:22
  Speaker 4: to a question because is it in the public domain? Right,
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: So it depends on how they're using it, just like
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: with this AI stuff, right as it relates to AI,
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: you know it's AI when it's intentionally trying to sound
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: like an artist and it is sounding like an artist,
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: and people are thinking it's the artist. That may be
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: an issue. But I don't know if you guys remember
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: like the song Panda when it came out, I thought
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: that was Future. Yeah, right of course, But that's how
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: designer sounds, so future can't. That's how the man sound, right,
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: So you can't stop him because that's how I swear.
• 38:59
  Speaker 4: I thought the Future, but that was someone else, but
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: that's his sound. You can't stop that. But I think
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: what's crazy with this technology, with AI and things like
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: that is the fact that if it's intentionally trying to
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: sound like, you know, a Kanye or a fifty cent,
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: they should have the right because that's their likelihood. That's
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: the right of their publicity. And especially the thing is
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: is it for commercial purposes?
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: Though?
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: Are you getting paid from the AI right? Like you know,
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: I'm from Chicago and we had a store and it
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: was called Dominick's Right, and so Dominicks used Michael Jordan's
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: likeness to promote stakes and Michael Jordan gave them no
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: permission to do that, and he soothed them and won
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: a multi million dollar lawsuit from that. Because you cannot
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: use a celebrity likeness without their permission for commercial purposes.
• 39:51
  Speaker 5: Especially when in Chicago.
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: You know, I actually think he took the money he
• 39:55
  Speaker 4: won from the lawsuit and opened the steakhouse in Chicago
• 39:58
  Speaker 4: and now Dominicks is no where else to be found.
• 40:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So is there a time.
• 40:04
  Speaker 6: Because I mean, we've gotten emails when you have to
• 40:07
  Speaker 6: actually renew the trademark. Do they expire at some point?
• 40:10
  Speaker 6: And what is that process like when you have to
• 40:13
  Speaker 6: renew it.
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a good question. So unlike your annual reports,
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: because a lot of people think, well, I got to
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: do this every year like I do my you know,
• 40:21
  Speaker 4: my corporations and things. No, it's a trademark registration. After
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: you have it registered, you have to maintain the registration
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: between your fifth and six year anniversary, and then your
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: ninth and tenth year anniversary, and then every ten years after. Right,
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: So what you're showing the government is that you're still
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: using a brand. So remember I told you guys earlier,
• 40:42
  Speaker 4: Coca Cola was registered in eighteen ninety three. Now the
• 40:46
  Speaker 4: thing is Coca Cola when they filed the trademark, they
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: filed it for their actual logo at the time, Right,
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: with the curse of writing and things like that. So
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: now every ten years, Coca Cola have to show that
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: they're still using that same logo in order to keep
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: that historically mark trademark. And so sometimes you'll see them
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: come out with a retro line and things like that,
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: and that's to continue to show the actual use. And
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: you know, sometimes we get on this topic because people
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: be like, but should I trademark my logo or should
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: I just trademark my name?
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: And I say, sometimes you should do both. It depends.
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: But the thing is when you just do your logo,
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: that's the brand, that's the trademark. So it's so important
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: like a McDonald's. McDonald's did the trademark and stand their
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: characters where they own McDonald's and steering their characters, but
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: they also own the logo with the golden archers for
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: McDonald's because McDonald's has changed their logos about nine different
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: times over the past seventy years. So a trademark will
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: last as long as you use that, you will not
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: lose it. But you do have to keep up the
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: registration mating and you pay, you pay absolutely. But here's
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: the thing, because I know why you're asking that question
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: because you're probably getting a lot of spam mail asking
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: you to pay these random people. So you got to
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: be care with that because Okay, when we file our trademarks,
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: the USPTO is public record, right, so all you're gonna
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: get all type of spam mail. You're gonna get all types.
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: And this is why it's important that you're represented by
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: an attorney because the government will never contact you. They're
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: gonna contact your attorney, right, but the spammers and the scammers,
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: they'll send you saying you gotta maintain your registration at
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: year four so you could go ahead and pay them.
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: And then now a lot of people trademarks get canceled
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: because they think they paid the government to maintain it
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: when they paid a scammer. So it's very important, and
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: I want to just say this, as of November of
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: twenty twenty three, they are now calling people when you
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: file your trademark because the government acts for your phone number.
• 42:44
  Speaker 4: They're calling demanding that you pay four hundred and twenty
• 42:47
  Speaker 4: five dollars or they're going to cancel your trademark. They're
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: acting like they're the government, and that type of do
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: not file for the scam hang up automatically and tell
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: them you know, you will contact the USPTO directly. A
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: government official from the USPTO would never demand you pay
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: them over the phone. You have to pay your fees
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: through the website.
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: So what's a service mark?
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: So a service mark is basically like I'm a lawyer, right,
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: and so I offer a service. It's just a word
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: you can use interchangeably with the trademark. So you can
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: say I have a service mark or a trademark. It
• 43:20
  Speaker 4: doesn't matter.
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: It's the same thing.
• 43:21
  Speaker 4: It's the same thing. Yeah, but you wouldn't say a
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: service mark for a product. Basically.
• 43:28
  Speaker 6: What about So we got the different categories here, But
• 43:33
  Speaker 6: some of these brands are global and so the international
• 43:36
  Speaker 6: trademark this is something that people have little to know
• 43:40
  Speaker 6: knowledge about, right, And having to trademark internationally requires a
• 43:43
  Speaker 6: lot of things capital number one, but making sure you have.
• 43:46
  Speaker 5: The trademark in each different country. So about that.
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: Process that is so very important, especially if you are
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: going to have an international brand. Right. I'm working with
• 43:57
  Speaker 4: some clients in Ghana right now that has a really
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: huge brand where they do a really big festival and
• 44:02
  Speaker 4: you know a lot of US are going over there
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: for the festival in December, right, And so it's not
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: only important, yes, but it's so important that you know,
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: we protect that brand not only here in the States
• 44:17
  Speaker 4: but also in Africa as well. But the thing is,
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: so there is a there's a treaty that the government
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: has what about eighty other different countries where you can
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: actually it's called the Majria Protocol where you can actually
• 44:31
  Speaker 4: when you file your trademark with the US, you can
• 44:33
  Speaker 4: apply with all these different countries, but you have to
• 44:36
  Speaker 4: pay all these different country fees and things like that.
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: Now that is available to you. I don't recommend it.
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: The reason I don't recommend it is because each country
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: has their own laws, they have their own different processes,
• 44:49
  Speaker 4: and also too, we want to clear those marks in
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: those countries. So when I have a client that wants
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: to do an international brand, we hire local council in
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: those countries trees and you'll be surprised. Like we did
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: a trademark in India and just because of the conversion rate,
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: it was very affordable for my client to do what
• 45:09
  Speaker 4: he needed to do in there. But it's just a
• 45:12
  Speaker 4: different process and you know, we want someone local of
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: the land so that they can guide us and counsel us.
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't be a good attorney if I say, yeah,
• 45:20
  Speaker 4: let's just put it through the system and not blindly. Right.
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: We need to clear that and we need counsel and
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: advisement from that region to help us with that.
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: So how much does it cost to trademark something?
• 45:31
  Speaker 4: So it could cost well, let me tell you this.
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: The balance fees with the government starts at two hundred
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: and fifty dollars and can go up to like four
• 45:39
  Speaker 4: to twenty five, right, depending on who you work with. Right,
• 45:42
  Speaker 4: there's a you know attorneys that charge you know from
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: here all the way to five thousand dollars. And I
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: can tell you what we charge at our firm. We
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: charged fifteen hundred dollars to trademark a mark. That includes
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: the filing, that includes the class, and that includes us
• 45:56
  Speaker 4: doing the research. What's the class that's that's the forty
• 45:59
  Speaker 4: five so one class, right, and so if they want
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: us to add additional classes, it's an additional thousand dollars.
• 46:05
  Speaker 5: I want to do media education apparel three classes.
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: Fifteen because media actually falls under the same class as education, right,
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: So like, well, so my fair, okay, I'll tell you.
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: My favorite class is Class forty one and it's the
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: education and Entertainment class, right, And so some of my
• 46:24
  Speaker 4: clients love me and the reason being is because they'll
• 46:27
  Speaker 4: come to me and be like, Rosina, I want to
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: trademark for coaching because I'm a coach. I'll be like, okay,
• 46:31
  Speaker 4: but you also have a podcast, you also have this course.
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: You're also educating people, you do events, You're hiring people
• 46:39
  Speaker 4: to come speak, and all that can be covered under
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: that one class.
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: So okay, So people can do it themselves though too, right,
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: Like people can.
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: Well see, I didn't want to say they name, but
• 46:52
  Speaker 4: you said it, so since you said their name, I
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: don't fall short there as well. And they because they're
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: not gonna offer you legal counsel and advisement, they say
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: you can pay more for that and they'll connect you
• 47:07
  Speaker 4: with someone. Right. But it's it's it's kind of chaotic
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: because you don't have that relationship, you know. And people
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: always ask us what's the difference between you and legal
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: Zoom and I tell them the value is in a relationship.
• 47:20
  Speaker 4: You know, I run a law firm, right, I care
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: about my clients, and you know I'm promoting my client's business.
• 47:27
  Speaker 4: My client success is my success. Right. If I'm in
• 47:30
  Speaker 4: a situation where I can present an opportunity to someone
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: who can help bring my client the loan, I'm gonna
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: do that for my client. Right. But also too, I'm like,
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: so with those type of companies, you're filling out that paperwork, right,
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: and they're gonna just take the information you gave them
• 47:46
  Speaker 4: and put it into the system. Right. But again, like
• 47:49
  Speaker 4: I just said, I have clients come to me and
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: be like Roseene, I'm doing I want to do coaching,
• 47:52
  Speaker 4: But then I see so much more for them, right,
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: So it's the custom made like you know, it's not
• 47:58
  Speaker 4: this cookie cutter service. I'm It's like me having my CPA, right,
• 48:03
  Speaker 4: I'm able to have conversations with my CPA, like, look, CPA,
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: I want to buy a house this year. And because
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: I want to buy a house, right, I need my
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: taxes to show you this. And I want my you know,
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: my business to show profit because I want to file
• 48:19
  Speaker 4: my taxes. Yes, I really don't want to pay a
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: lot of money, but in order to qualify to get
• 48:23
  Speaker 4: for this loan, I need, you know, my taxes to
• 48:26
  Speaker 4: look a certain type of way. So it's that value
• 48:30
  Speaker 4: of the relationship instead of somebody going and filing your
• 48:33
  Speaker 4: taxes and then writing everything off as a deduction and
• 48:35
  Speaker 4: now it looks like your business have no value. And
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: now it's like I look like a business owner who
• 48:41
  Speaker 4: is not generating money.
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: So okay, if somebody use your firm, right, so you're
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: probably not working with the person right directly correct, what's
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: the process? Somebody wants to file a trademark, walk me
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: through this process and they're going to receive.
• 49:01
  Speaker 4: That's a great question. So I have about fifteen team
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: members and sometimes I do get called in, but not
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: often because right now I am trying to master this
• 49:12
  Speaker 4: experience as a CEO, right and promote the business, promote
• 49:15
  Speaker 4: the firm, and be the educator and a voice for it.
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: But so when you book, you could start by either
• 49:21
  Speaker 4: booking a discovery call or just booking your trademark. We
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: have some great people because they watch my content. They
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: just book the trademark and then they will have an
• 49:29
  Speaker 4: onboarding call, right or they will if you have questions
• 49:33
  Speaker 4: before you book, you will have a discovery call and
• 49:36
  Speaker 4: it will be one of my team members who's not
• 49:38
  Speaker 4: an attorney that will just explain to you the general process,
• 49:41
  Speaker 4: like I kind of broke down here. Once that happens,
• 49:45
  Speaker 4: we will pass it along to our pair of legals
• 49:47
  Speaker 4: and then they will do the research right for the name,
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: They will prepare the letter and then it will be
• 49:53
  Speaker 4: reviewed by one of the attorneys and approved by one
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: of the attorneys, and then you will book will email
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: you your opinion letter with the search results with a
• 50:02
  Speaker 4: link to book a call with your attorney. So with
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: our office, you're actually going to have at least two calls,
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: one just to learn the general process. It's like an
• 50:10
  Speaker 4: onboarding call. The second you will have your actual one
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: on one consultation with an attorney.
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: Right, how many attorneys you have?
• 50:17
  Speaker 4: I have three?
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: Got three? So at some point in time, is that
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: ever a relationship directly with the attorney.
• 50:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, when you're on that one on one call with them.
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: No, what I'm saying like as far as so, like
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: I have a lawyer, right, m H, real estate lawyer.
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: I just talked to him directly. But if it's a
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: big firm, I probably wouldn't have that personal relationship. I
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: might talk to him like once a year.
• 50:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So let me so I know you guys, was
• 50:43
  Speaker 4: at Rachel Rogers conference and you guys interviewed Rachel, right.
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: So Rachel was my first coach, right, And I told
• 50:50
  Speaker 4: Rachel and we fought back and forth, and I was like, Rachel,
• 50:53
  Speaker 4: I got to talk to every single client. And she
• 50:56
  Speaker 4: was like, well, how are you going to make a
• 50:57
  Speaker 4: million dollars in your business? Because you can't talk to
• 51:00
  Speaker 4: every single client. It's just not possible. Right. And so
• 51:04
  Speaker 4: because we represent entrepreneurs, some of them understand that and
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: some of them don't. And so as a business owner,
• 51:11
  Speaker 4: which she taught me, and I, you know, I give
• 51:13
  Speaker 4: it to her because I didn't want to let that
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: part go. I was like, I gotta talk to everybody.
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: And she was like, no, Rosina, you can't talk to everybody.
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: And she was right. And we thought about this for
• 51:24
  Speaker 4: like five months, right, And but it was the best
• 51:29
  Speaker 4: advice she could have given me, because if I can
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: own like, I couldn't have grew the firm the way
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: I grew on it, right, I can't employ fifteen different people, right,
• 51:38
  Speaker 4: which I think is more bigger and it's a bigger impact.
• 51:42
  Speaker 4: And also I would say this the firm is ranked
• 51:45
  Speaker 4: number forty out of over twenty eight thousand law firms,
• 51:50
  Speaker 4: not because of me doing the work, but because of
• 51:53
  Speaker 4: what my team has done. Right, I'm ranked number fifteen
• 51:57
  Speaker 4: out over thirty three thousand trademark attorneys. Now just because
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: of me. I didn't do this by myself. It's because
• 52:02
  Speaker 4: of my team. And so what I understand as a
• 52:05
  Speaker 4: CEO and a business owner is everybody is not your client. Right.
• 52:10
  Speaker 4: So I do have some clients from the very beginning
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: who like Rosina, I only want to deal with you, right,
• 52:15
  Speaker 4: And sometimes I'm like, look, you might fall out thet
• 52:18
  Speaker 4: I gotta solidified process. And these numbers where I'm ranked,
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: they come from the USPTO data. It's numbers, right, jay
• 52:27
  Speaker 4: Z said, Ma allied women lot numbers don't right, And
• 52:30
  Speaker 4: so I don't want you to fall out that process
• 52:33
  Speaker 4: that I created. Right. My job as the CEO right
• 52:37
  Speaker 4: now is to make sure that my team is having
• 52:39
  Speaker 4: a great experience working as my team, so that my
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: clients have an even better experience as my clients. Right.
• 52:46
  Speaker 4: And so I think too, you know, I have to
• 52:50
  Speaker 4: defend this all the time as a black woman as
• 52:53
  Speaker 4: a CEO. Right, But when you look at other larger
• 52:57
  Speaker 4: law firms and other people that are no, I are color.
• 53:00
  Speaker 4: You're not talking to the CEO, You're not working directly
• 53:04
  Speaker 4: with the person name on the door, right, And so
• 53:07
  Speaker 4: I had to shift my mindset. And now even in
• 53:10
  Speaker 4: my marketing and speaking and talking, I'm educating. I'm speaking right.
• 53:15
  Speaker 6: You know.
• 53:15
  Speaker 4: There was another coach I had. She said, you know,
• 53:18
  Speaker 4: you got to call out Lazarus name. You got to
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: speak directly to the clients you want to work with.
• 53:23
  Speaker 4: You give what I'm saying. And so there are some
• 53:25
  Speaker 4: people be like, I just want to work with you. Well,
• 53:27
  Speaker 4: you know sometimes I have events and things like that
• 53:29
  Speaker 4: pull up on me. On an event. We can never work.
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: You know, we can take pictures together, but I really
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: need you to work with my team because it's just
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: going to be a better client experience.
• 53:38
  Speaker 5: We appreciate that, and we appreciate the jay Z reference.
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: Of course.
• 53:43
  Speaker 6: So in order for the client to be prepared for
• 53:46
  Speaker 6: this call, right, I'm sure you're over five thousand trademarks
• 53:49
  Speaker 6: you've ready filed. What are some of the mistakes that
• 53:52
  Speaker 6: you're seeing from the client side before they even get
• 53:54
  Speaker 6: to you, right, other than trying to do with themselves.
• 53:57
  Speaker 6: But we got that, what are some of the things
• 53:59
  Speaker 6: that you're seeing from your landscape that says, all right,
• 54:02
  Speaker 6: you should have disprepared before you want to even get
• 54:04
  Speaker 6: to this process.
• 54:05
  Speaker 4: I think the biggest mistake that we see is that
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: people have already did the incorporation. They already got the
• 54:12
  Speaker 4: EI in number, and they like, I got the the
• 54:14
  Speaker 4: irs gave me my EI in number, so I know
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: it's good. They don't care nothing about your name. They
• 54:19
  Speaker 4: just want your social Security numbers so they can say
• 54:21
  Speaker 4: your tax bill, right, So they gied this CiU notice,
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: so they seen your tax bill. So what we see
• 54:27
  Speaker 4: is like people actually going out and building first, and
• 54:31
  Speaker 4: then we have to have that harsh conversation with them
• 54:34
  Speaker 4: actually rebranding or starting over, right. You know, it's it's
• 54:38
  Speaker 4: very disheartening when we have to counsel clients through an
• 54:41
  Speaker 4: actual phase out or a rebrand period because that can
• 54:47
  Speaker 4: be mentally detrimental to them. Right, they're like, wait a minute,
• 54:51
  Speaker 4: I gotta tear everything down that I did it. So
• 54:53
  Speaker 4: it's important that we start with the research first, Like
• 54:57
  Speaker 4: we want to clear the name first before we adopt
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: the name.
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: So being on social media, right, how has that affected
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: your business? And how do you walk a thin line
• 55:11
  Speaker 3: because it's like social media influencers sometimes are not taken
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: serious in like the real business world, right, So how
• 55:21
  Speaker 3: do you how do you navigate that?
• 55:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah? So, and that's and that's hard, right, because I
• 55:26
  Speaker 4: think one of the mistakes I made was building the
• 55:29
  Speaker 4: business brand on the platform the biz Lawyer, right, and
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: now trying to transform it because everybody do want to
• 55:35
  Speaker 4: work with the biz Lawyer, right, But I'm like educating
• 55:38
  Speaker 4: them and I speaker and we and things like that.
• 55:40
  Speaker 4: But I know, and I know there was a case
• 55:42
  Speaker 4: recently where like a young lady who was like a
• 55:45
  Speaker 4: public official was trking into a loom or something and
• 55:49
  Speaker 4: it was on social media and she, you know, she
• 55:51
  Speaker 4: lost her seat as a public official. So for me,
• 55:55
  Speaker 4: when I'm making decisions, I'm not just making decisions for
• 55:58
  Speaker 4: Rosina anymore. I'm not making decisions for just me and
• 56:02
  Speaker 4: my kids. I'm making decisions for my team and fifteen
• 56:05
  Speaker 4: other families. And I'm also a brand representation of my
• 56:09
  Speaker 4: client's brand, right, and so I don't you know, and
• 56:12
  Speaker 4: I'm an attorney, so I hold that to a high standard.
• 56:16
  Speaker 4: So you know, you're not gonna like sometimes I love
• 56:19
  Speaker 4: trap music though, you know, sometimes that's my weakness, like.
• 56:22
  Speaker 5: You know, it.
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: Really is because I grew up in that as well.
• 56:28
  Speaker 4: Like and you know, I have to turn on jay
• 56:30
  Speaker 4: Z the streets is watching them, you know, to remind people,
• 56:33
  Speaker 4: like you know what I'm saying, Like people will really
• 56:35
  Speaker 4: play games with you, you know, and it it like so
• 56:40
  Speaker 4: I and it's situations where you know, you see things
• 56:44
  Speaker 4: and you want to, you know, react and respond, but
• 56:47
  Speaker 4: it's like that's not for this, that's not the platform
• 56:51
  Speaker 4: for this. And I'm an eighties baby. I don't do
• 56:54
  Speaker 4: things on social media, right, I don't you know, if
• 56:56
  Speaker 4: I have issues with people or anything, I either want
• 56:59
  Speaker 4: to talk to you so you can hear my tone
• 57:01
  Speaker 4: so you could feel me right, or I want to
• 57:04
  Speaker 4: see you and we talk about it. I think a
• 57:06
  Speaker 4: lot of times people things just get heightened and elevated
• 57:10
  Speaker 4: because of how people use social media, and so I
• 57:13
  Speaker 4: just try to keep it professional and keep it cute,
• 57:16
  Speaker 4: and that's it.
• 57:17
  Speaker 6: So when we talk about the other side of this,
• 57:20
  Speaker 6: after we've got the trademark, we're protecting the trademark.
• 57:23
  Speaker 5: But trademark infreshment is something that's real, it's real. So
• 57:27
  Speaker 5: most people don't know.
• 57:27
  Speaker 6: The process of that because it feels like every time
• 57:29
  Speaker 6: you see something that's even remotely close to your business
• 57:31
  Speaker 6: is like, we got to send a seats and assist.
• 57:34
  Speaker 5: What is that process?
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: Like?
• 57:35
  Speaker 5: How long does that take? Because I mean it feels
• 57:37
  Speaker 5: like it can go on for years.
• 57:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So what I say is it's so very important
• 57:42
  Speaker 4: that we watch our brands right because I think if
• 57:44
  Speaker 4: we react sooner to the infringement, sometimes the infringe will
• 57:48
  Speaker 4: be more readily to go away. But if we take
• 57:52
  Speaker 4: a while and we don't respond to them, and we
• 57:55
  Speaker 4: leave them for years to years to come and they
• 57:57
  Speaker 4: then build the brand and look like ours now, now
• 58:00
  Speaker 4: it's harder for them to tear you know, take it
• 58:02
  Speaker 4: down right. So what I say, and we have a
• 58:04
  Speaker 4: template that we give our clients, because we do charge
• 58:08
  Speaker 4: for a cease and desist letter. It's fifteen hundred dollars
• 58:10
  Speaker 4: to send the opposite side, and we might have to
• 58:12
  Speaker 4: go back and forth with them and things like that,
• 58:14
  Speaker 4: but we have a template that kind of says, look,
• 58:17
  Speaker 4: I see you using my brand. If you don't stop
• 58:19
  Speaker 4: using my brand, I'm gonna get my lawyer's off. It's
• 58:22
  Speaker 4: a little nicer, you know, but you know, trying to
• 58:24
  Speaker 4: talk to people, but I don't recommend it's sliding the
• 58:27
  Speaker 4: people dym talm a boy, look that's my brand, take
• 58:29
  Speaker 4: it down. You know, Like you gotta be professional because
• 58:32
  Speaker 4: people are gonna act accordingly to how you come right,
• 58:35
  Speaker 4: but also to what I would say is for infringement,
• 58:39
  Speaker 4: it's so very important that you react right away because
• 58:43
  Speaker 4: the lack of not doing anything or saying anything can
• 58:46
  Speaker 4: turnish your brand and also you can possibly lose the
• 58:49
  Speaker 4: rights to your brand. There is a company in California
• 58:53
  Speaker 4: where they were like fit bug or something like that,
• 58:56
  Speaker 4: and then once fitbit got really big, right you're if
• 59:00
  Speaker 4: it bits. I don't know if they still around, but
• 59:03
  Speaker 4: they tried to suit them for trademark in Frenchmen and
• 59:05
  Speaker 4: they were the first ones. But in the government, I
• 59:08
  Speaker 4: mean the course said well, why you've been all this time?
• 59:10
  Speaker 4: They said, well, we wanted to just see first if
• 59:12
  Speaker 4: they were going to be successful, and they said no,
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: you can't wait to someone successful to stop them, and
• 59:18
  Speaker 4: they wasn't. And also there's a defense in where we
• 59:20
  Speaker 4: call a lack of acquiescence. You consent it to my
• 59:24
  Speaker 4: youse just because you didn't do anything.
• 59:27
  Speaker 3: So okay, So for your business, what's the next elevation
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: where you can see yourself going.
• 59:33
  Speaker 4: That's a good question. I you know, there is a
• 59:39
  Speaker 4: place where I feel like, you know, and I don't
• 59:41
  Speaker 4: want to say it's like a sense of entitlement or
• 59:44
  Speaker 4: anything like that, but I'm like, damn, we like right
• 59:47
  Speaker 4: in the top one percent in the count.
• 59:51
  Speaker 3: Get how does that work?
• 59:52
  Speaker 4: So they actually pull all the data from the USPTO
• 59:56
  Speaker 4: and they pull it based on your success rate, right,
• 59:59
  Speaker 4: So they like how many? So there are other companies
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 4: that you have mentioned, right, and they score you right,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 4: And so they will score you based on one hundred
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 4: percent scale. So a lot of companies spout a whole
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 4: bunch of trademarks, but they don't get them successfully registered, right,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 4: So their score might be a thirty seven, right, Whereas
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 4: we're fouling a lot of trademarks and our success rate
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 4: is very hot because we're getting them registered right. So
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 4: that's why we do the research, we do the consultation
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 4: and things like that. And so with that being said,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 4: and with us where we're ranking. You know, I was
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 4: at a place where I was in a room with
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 4: corporate counsel because the one thing I think is troubling
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 4: for a lot of black business owners is sustainability, right?
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 4: How do you sustain your business? Right? And so I
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 4: just told you guys, we try to charge a flat
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 4: feed rate. And you know, they said, you know, black
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 4: women were the fastest growing entrepreneurs, but we're also the
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 4: fastest growing to have our business is shut down, right.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 4: My business has been open for eleven years. But sustainability
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 4: is something that we do struggle with because we charge
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 4: a flat fee rate and we represent clients who really
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 4: they're just starting their business out. And so, you know,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 4: I was like, Okay, so I'm in this room with
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 4: corporate councils in Chicago. It's like one hundred and fifty
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 4: councils in their represent big corporations, and you know, they're
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 4: talking about diversity and there's a panel of diversity inclusion.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 4: But on the panel, you know, Meta is represented Capital One,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 4: I think it was a big clothing brand and a
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 4: law firm, and they're asking them questions of how do
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 4: they make sure that they're getting diversity inclusion And they
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 4: talk about how they go hire the law firms or whatever,
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 4: and they're making sure that the law firms actually have
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 4: diverse associates or attorneys working within the law firm, and
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 4: so I stood up and I said, well, hey, my
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 4: name is Rosina Pears, and I am actually a black
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 4: female owner of a trademark law firm, and we are
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 4: actually ranked in the top one percent of the country
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 4: when it comes to trademarks. I said, you know, Capital One,
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 4: I don't know how much your trademark portfolio budget is,
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 4: but I know you know, Visa has about a thirty
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 4: five million dollar budget for their trademarks a year. I
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 4: just wanted to know, like, how can our firm get
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 4: business from a company like yours?
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 4: And they said, well, you just got to come in
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 4: room like this and meet people and network with people.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 4: But after that panel, everybody just walked out and walked
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 4: out the door, right. So I think that's the struggle,
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 4: you know, when it comes to sustainability of black owned
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 4: businesses and things like that, being able to tap into,
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 4: you know, different corporations in order to get money. So
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 4: we're looking for corporate clients so that we can also
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 4: help and provide better resources to our small business owner
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 4: through government funding.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 6: Yeah, part of sustainability is you got to have profitability,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 6: so that it's very important, like this is a niche.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 3: Part of law.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 5: So are you as part of the rankings of you
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 5: being so high?
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 6: Is it the affordability that you put inside the system
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 6: or how have you set prices to make sure that
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 6: you could be representative of our community and obviously attract
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 6: corporate clients as well.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so it is. So that's the thing. So with
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 4: my fees, they always have been affordable, right always, Like
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 4: I can remember back where I'm not even gonna say
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 4: the number I used to charge when it was just me, right,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 4: but you know, I think fifteen hundred dollars is very
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 4: affordable for a small business owners starting their business, right,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 4: I know, you know different ways. And I always tell
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 4: people they be like, or I saw, how am I
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 4: I get to get the money? Well, right now, we
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 4: have a program called a firm that will actually kind
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 4: of like have to pay where you can you know,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 4: apply for that. But what I also tell them is, look,
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 4: as an entrepreneur, you're gonna have to be creative when
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 4: it comes to raising capital. Right, That's just the that's
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 4: just have to be something within you and you have
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 4: to learn that and master that fast because if you
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 4: plan on having a team, payroll, product, delivery, inventory, you're
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 4: gonna have to figure out how to raise capital right,
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 4: and so one thing you want to do is just
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 4: make sure your foundation is right by starting with a lawyer.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 4: And I think our firm fees are very affordable, but
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 4: also too like a visa. Like if we can just
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 4: get you know, heck a million dollars of that thirty
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 4: five million dollar budget, that will be a tremendous help
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 4: to our business. And we have shown and proven that
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 4: we can handle this type of work in our niche area.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 3: Oh we thank you for coming.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 3: How can the people contact you? What's the website? Social
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 3: and all that stuff?
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so follow me on Instagram at the bist Lawyer.
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 4: I have to be honest, I am not good with
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 4: other social media handles right now, but my team is
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 4: getting me there. But we all on LinkedIn and Facebook
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 4: as well. But also go to secure the Brand dot
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 4: com and you can book a discovery calls to the
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 4: team or just get your trademark started with us.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 3: There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, guys,
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 3: rock once to see you next week.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 5: Peace Peace.
• 1:05:09
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