Latest / Earn Your Leisure / The #1 Mistake That Costs Black Entrepreneurs Their Brands

Transcript

The #1 Mistake That Costs Black Entrepreneurs Their Brands · Earn Your Leisure

0:00
Speaker 1: So I got to ask you some some business questions
0:02
Speaker 1: and some legal questions. You know, we had Julian Brown.
0:05
Speaker 1: His episode went really viral and one clip went really
0:09
Speaker 1: really viral where he said it's a mistake to try
0:12
Speaker 1: to patent something because if you're pat in something, then
0:15
Speaker 1: it goes on the registreet and pretty much it's just
0:18
Speaker 1: open source for people to steal your ideas. Big companies
0:21
Speaker 1: can take it, they consue you. So he advised people
0:24
Speaker 1: not to patent. Yeah, so let.
0:29
Speaker 2: Me say this.
0:29
Speaker 3: So there's four different types of intellectual property, right, So
0:33
Speaker 3: a trade secret will last as long as it's a secret.
0:37
Speaker 3: A patent only lasts for twenty years. But a trademark
0:40
Speaker 3: will last as long as you use it. You will
0:42
Speaker 3: not lose it. I'm a trademark attorney, right, And so
0:45
Speaker 3: Coca Cola has been registered since eighteen ninety three, Mercedes
0:50
Speaker 3: been registered and not since nineteen oh three. So what
0:52
Speaker 3: I will tell people is, don't allow people to trick
0:55
Speaker 3: you out of your greatness and tell you that a
0:57
Speaker 3: trademark is not necessary. Now, what Julian was talking about,
1:01
Speaker 3: and I actually met Julien at Investments, what he was
1:04
Speaker 3: talking about, it's a smart and it's a strategic move.
1:08
Speaker 3: But also what I would encourage Julian because he talked.
1:11
Speaker 3: He said he spoke to some CEO that was I
1:15
Speaker 3: think he was the founder or the inventor of the.
1:18
Speaker 2: Something Serious something. He referenced the guy in an interview.
1:22
Speaker 3: What I would say is is that Julian should probably
1:26
Speaker 3: talk to someone like Miss Delanie Johnson. Miss Delanie Johnson
1:30
Speaker 3: is an inventor that works for NASA who is a
1:34
Speaker 3: black inventor.
1:35
Speaker 2: Right.
1:35
Speaker 3: He invented the super soca and he actually won multi
1:39
Speaker 3: million dollar lawsuits because people in French are his pat
1:43
Speaker 3: and so again sometimes we don't I understand his thought
1:47
Speaker 3: processes behind it. Because when you do apply for a pattern,
1:50
Speaker 3: all of your information is not a secret anymore, right,
1:54
Speaker 3: and so you do want to, you know, talk through
1:57
Speaker 3: to see what's your better options. Because I always tell
2:00
Speaker 3: people the law is not a one size fit all garment.
2:02
Speaker 3: What may be best for them may not be best
2:05
Speaker 3: for you depending on the technology. You know, you want
2:07
Speaker 3: to just talk to people and you might not have
2:10
Speaker 3: to disclose all proprietary things. Also, I would say talk
2:14
Speaker 3: to patent attorneys who are looking out for your best interest,
2:17
Speaker 3: you know, what I'm saying, I know a few of
2:19
Speaker 3: them if he needs that, But.
2:22
Speaker 2: It depends. It really just depends.
2:24
Speaker 3: But as far as miss Delaney Johnson, who is a
2:28
Speaker 3: black inventor who worked at NASA, who had a register
2:31
Speaker 3: pad on the Super Soca and who has benefited, I
2:34
Speaker 3: would say, you know, that's probably somebody he would want
2:37
Speaker 3: to get his guidance from because he's been through it
2:39
Speaker 3: and been through the process. Another thing I would say
2:42
Speaker 3: is because he did talk about like fighting these big
2:45
Speaker 3: companies when it comes to infringement and things like that.
2:48
Speaker 3: But what they don't tell you is there's actually intellectual
2:52
Speaker 3: property investors that will invest in your lawsuit. They like
2:56
Speaker 3: these are hedge fun guys, and so all they do
2:59
Speaker 3: is invest and lawsuits if they feel like the probability
3:02
Speaker 3: of you winning is a big chance.
3:04
Speaker 2: Right. So I see too many times where they try.
3:07
Speaker 3: To trick us us right out of our greatness, tell
3:11
Speaker 3: us not to secure our intellectual property. But when you
3:14
Speaker 3: have intellectual property, when you have you know, assets, real
3:19
Speaker 3: estate like your portfolio, can be so much bigger and
3:23
Speaker 3: so much valuable. So I would just say, just be
3:25
Speaker 3: careful who you get your advice from, and talk to
3:28
Speaker 3: people more so that been through it that look more
3:31
Speaker 3: like you, because it's a lot of people out here
3:32
Speaker 3: that are trying to trick us out of our greatness.
3:35
Speaker 2: No, I appreciate that.
3:36
Speaker 4: Now you talked about being with us since day one.
3:40
Speaker 4: Congratulations to you. I don't want that to go a
3:42
Speaker 4: out head. You said six thousand clients, that's a lot.
3:46
Speaker 2: That's a lot.
3:47
Speaker 4: So talk about scaling in this environment obviously. I mean
3:52
Speaker 4: it's tough out here for a lot of people. But
3:54
Speaker 4: your business is scaling at a time like this. I
3:57
Speaker 4: wonder number one, how you've gone about that, because sometimes
4:00
Speaker 4: they say, don't scale too fast. The other part is
4:04
Speaker 4: we talk about technology here all the time. Has AI
4:06
Speaker 4: been a part of that scalability? And if show how
4:10
Speaker 4: you been using it?
4:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, So for me, I've been trying to use AI
4:17
Speaker 3: very responsibly. Like I'm a CEO, so I want to
4:20
Speaker 3: be smart about things. I don't want to be the
4:22
Speaker 3: CEO like Blockbuster and block bluster myself out of business
4:26
Speaker 3: and not pay attention to what's trending and what's happening.
4:30
Speaker 3: But I do want to be conscious about it, you know,
4:32
Speaker 3: like I'm in the state of Georgia I've been here
4:34
Speaker 3: since twenty seventeen, and you know, Georgia has like some
4:38
Speaker 3: of the well we have. This is the state with
4:40
Speaker 3: the most data centers, and you know, people are complaining
4:43
Speaker 3: about high electricity and things like. So I'm trying to
4:47
Speaker 3: be also conscious about the situation also too. I just
4:51
Speaker 3: believe if we you know, there's a lot of CEOs
4:53
Speaker 3: that want to replace their workforce with AI technology. But
4:57
Speaker 3: if we replace the workforce then and how can the
5:00
Speaker 3: people create revenue to actually consume the product?
5:05
Speaker 2: Right?
5:05
Speaker 3: So what I have done with my team is I asked,
5:08
Speaker 3: I went to them and I said, how do you
5:10
Speaker 3: think AI can help you? I'm not a CEO trying
5:13
Speaker 3: to figure out how can I use AI to replace
5:16
Speaker 3: my team? But how can I create how can they
5:18
Speaker 3: use it to benefit them so that we can have
5:21
Speaker 3: a more efficient process, so the client experience is better
5:25
Speaker 3: because right now, truth be told, like a cord, of
5:28
Speaker 3: our clients they either try to file their trademark themselves,
5:31
Speaker 3: and at one point they went through you know, all
5:33
Speaker 3: these other you know, internet data companies. But now lately
5:37
Speaker 3: the biggest call we've been getting this you know, I
5:39
Speaker 3: did my trademark with chat GPT and now I got
5:42
Speaker 3: an office action and I can't figure it out right,
5:45
Speaker 3: And so what I would tell entrepreneurs is like, yeah,
5:48
Speaker 3: you want to understand, and you want to understand how
5:50
Speaker 3: to utilize it in your marketplace, but also be willing
5:54
Speaker 3: to invest in your business and your brand so that
5:57
Speaker 3: you stand out so people like AI is no.
6:00
Speaker 2: Competition for me.
6:01
Speaker 3: Like you know, I've been ranked number eight out of
6:03
Speaker 3: over thirty three PERUSAN trademark attorneys in this country. My
6:07
Speaker 3: law firm is in the top fifty out of for
6:09
Speaker 3: the past seven years because I do great work. And
6:12
Speaker 3: also too, we got people here that really we just
6:15
Speaker 3: we just care, you know. We care about our clients.
6:17
Speaker 3: We care about their goals, even if they can't afford
6:20
Speaker 3: to do all these trademarks at one time. Right, we're
6:24
Speaker 3: able to say, okay, well let's work on a plan
6:26
Speaker 3: to do it in this way. So we use it
6:29
Speaker 3: in a way slightly but consciously to help us enhance
6:32
Speaker 3: our process. But as a CEO, I'm not utilizing it
6:35
Speaker 3: to replace my team, if.
6:37
Speaker 2: That makes sense.
6:38
Speaker 5: I got you, Uh, you said something very important earlier.
6:43
Speaker 5: What are like two or three ways you will know
6:45
Speaker 5: if an attorney is looking out for your best interest
6:48
Speaker 5: versus their own.
6:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that's that's a really good question.
6:54
Speaker 3: And what I would say is just always question what
6:57
Speaker 3: the ownership lies, right, because I used to work in
7:02
Speaker 3: entertainment industry and I came in in twenty thirteen, where
7:06
Speaker 3: you know, at this time everything was shifted from CDs
7:10
Speaker 3: to MP three's and things like that, and I'm looking
7:13
Speaker 3: at certain contracts where they still got breakage claus in
7:17
Speaker 3: a contract, and you got to have an attorney that's
7:20
Speaker 3: willing to push back on that status quo, right and
7:22
Speaker 3: tell you, like and point these type of things out,
7:25
Speaker 3: because why do we have a breakage clause in a
7:27
Speaker 3: contract if we not shifting CDs or record players?
7:31
Speaker 2: Like, why are you gonna charge me a ten percent
7:33
Speaker 2: advancewer for that? Right?
7:34
Speaker 3: So you always want to question where does the ownership Lise, Like,
7:38
Speaker 3: I look at a lot of our celebrities and a
7:41
Speaker 3: lot of times they're being fired from projects.
7:43
Speaker 2: That they created on their own.
7:45
Speaker 3: And it's like, well, what who was that attorney that
7:48
Speaker 3: was sitting on the side of you to allow you
7:51
Speaker 3: not to even own part of your project, so the
7:54
Speaker 3: people across from you to actually fire you from something
7:56
Speaker 3: you created. So now you got a question to ask yourself,
8:00
Speaker 3: really sitting here on the side of you to represent
8:02
Speaker 3: you or is it a best is it an interest
8:04
Speaker 3: on the other side of the table for them, So
8:06
Speaker 3: you get even if you don't really understand how to
8:09
Speaker 3: digest contracts and things like that, you gotta just I
8:12
Speaker 3: would say, Star Wars acts and where does the ownership
8:14
Speaker 3: lise and if they have a problem with that, and
8:17
Speaker 3: that's cool. Everybody don't want to be owners, but at
8:19
Speaker 3: least let's be some partners that way.
8:21
Speaker 2: You can't just ouse me, you know on a like Kanye.
8:25
Speaker 3: Kanye did it so well, people could call I'm from Chicago,
8:28
Speaker 3: So you know, I.
8:28
Speaker 2: Gotta get midw Yes, I gotta give it to.
8:33
Speaker 3: It because you know, the biggest thing that Kanye knew
8:37
Speaker 3: that was important was owning the name right and so
8:40
Speaker 3: when he knew, okay, if I own yeasy, if they
8:43
Speaker 3: fire me, they gonna lose something too because I take
8:46
Speaker 3: the name with me and it goes with me. So
8:49
Speaker 3: I would just say, when you're talking to different advisors
8:52
Speaker 3: and counselors, you know, push back and question those things.
8:55
Speaker 3: And if you don't feel comfortable with that, those assers
8:57
Speaker 3: get a second or a third opinion, because you never
9:00
Speaker 3: want to be locked down, especially in a contract where
9:02
Speaker 3: there's a twenty year term or thirty year term and
9:06
Speaker 3: you locked into it and you don't fully understand it.
9:10
Speaker 1: So would you advise people to use chat GBT or
9:14
Speaker 1: use AI to read the contract until so they can
9:17
Speaker 1: understand it.
9:19
Speaker 2: So I would advise you to get an attorney.
9:22
Speaker 3: Here's why I use chat GPT for certain things, right,
9:25
Speaker 3: because I'm not the best marketer, right, but I also
9:29
Speaker 3: know how to push back. For instance, lawyers are not
9:32
Speaker 3: supposed to pay referral fees. Lawyers, bentnis doctors, right, We're
9:37
Speaker 3: not supposed to pay referral fees. In the event you
9:40
Speaker 3: pay a referral fee, you could be just barred to
9:43
Speaker 3: a non practicing professional or a non practicing attorney. I'm
9:47
Speaker 3: on Chat and I'm talking about a marketing initiative and
9:50
Speaker 3: Chat like, well, Rosina, you should just do a marketing
9:52
Speaker 3: initiative where you do a referral program where you could
9:54
Speaker 3: pay people, And I'm like, well, Chat, according to the
9:57
Speaker 3: ABA rule, American bar rule, can't pay ref So if
10:01
Speaker 3: you don't know that, right, because AI is still learning itself, right,
10:06
Speaker 3: and AI is pulling data from every single person. If
10:09
Speaker 3: they don't, it's kind of like the blind leading the blind,
10:12
Speaker 3: if that makes sense. Now, I'll tell you I redecorated
10:14
Speaker 3: my office and redecorated my front room using you know,
10:18
Speaker 3: AI and things like that. But for things that it
10:21
Speaker 3: revolves around your business and your ownership and things like that,
10:25
Speaker 3: you still want to have, you know, just a guiding
10:28
Speaker 3: principle because if I had not cited that law to
10:32
Speaker 3: it and I didn't know any better, I could have
10:35
Speaker 3: just ran with it. And that's what we're seeing right now,
10:37
Speaker 3: where a lot of people have utilized AI to file
10:41
Speaker 3: these applications and now it's wrong, and now they got
10:44
Speaker 3: to pay us to either come in and fix it
10:47
Speaker 3: or now we gotta file.
10:48
Speaker 2: It all over again because it's just wrong.
10:50
Speaker 4: To begin with the trademarking thing, it's pretty interesting and
10:55
Speaker 4: it's something that people should learn, especially like if you
10:58
Speaker 4: are a vendor and if you have a brand, talk
11:00
Speaker 4: about the different categories and how many categories should you
11:04
Speaker 4: be trademarking your brand, ie, your clothing line, because until
11:09
Speaker 4: you try to do it, you don't realize that there
11:11
Speaker 4: might be twenty different things that you could be using
11:13
Speaker 4: your name for you might want to use it later.
11:16
Speaker 4: Do you want to protect yourself and get as many
11:18
Speaker 4: categories as possible or is it categories specific? And then
11:21
Speaker 4: the other piece is do we start looking at it
11:24
Speaker 4: from an international standpoint depending on the size of the business.
11:27
Speaker 2: How should we go about that? That's a great question.
11:30
Speaker 3: So there are forty five different classes under trademark law.
11:34
Speaker 2: So one through thirty.
11:35
Speaker 3: Four is products, so good, and then thirty five through
11:39
Speaker 3: forty five is services.
11:41
Speaker 2: Right.
11:41
Speaker 3: And so if let's say, for instance, you are a
11:44
Speaker 3: podcaster and you're educating people on investing right, and so
11:49
Speaker 3: then you want to also you launch an investment app
11:53
Speaker 3: like teaching them and guiding them on investing principles, that
11:57
Speaker 3: may be two classes that you may fall under.
12:00
Speaker 2: Also too, for apparel, if you're gonna.
12:03
Speaker 3: Launch a parel line under that brand, that's also a
12:06
Speaker 3: third class that you need to file under. Now, let's
12:08
Speaker 3: say you're going to go to China to get those
12:11
Speaker 3: goods actually produce the paoline. Now under the US, US
12:16
Speaker 3: is a first to use jurisdiction, but China is the
12:20
Speaker 3: first to file jurisdiction. So I tell clients before you
12:23
Speaker 3: even go and do business in China because it's a
12:26
Speaker 3: different country and a.
12:27
Speaker 2: Foreign country, you gotta understand the laws.
12:29
Speaker 3: And before you even developed that manufacturing relationship with your manufacturer,
12:34
Speaker 3: file the trademark first. Why because it's a first to foul.
12:38
Speaker 3: And we have seen situations where clients in the US
12:42
Speaker 3: have went to China, you know, had products manufactured through China,
12:48
Speaker 3: and what happened is is the deal falls apart or
12:52
Speaker 3: the manufacturer is somehow, so.
12:54
Speaker 2: They file the trademark in China.
12:56
Speaker 3: So now they're reproducing and this is how a lot
12:59
Speaker 3: of counterfeits are creating and things like that. Now you
13:02
Speaker 3: can file your trademark in the US, and you could
13:05
Speaker 3: file with US Customs Border Patrol to try to keep
13:09
Speaker 3: some of that stuff out of the US. But it's
13:11
Speaker 3: just best to have that protection they're in here because
13:14
Speaker 3: now you can go to the Chinese government and have
13:17
Speaker 3: those rights enforced over there. But if they filed it first,
13:20
Speaker 3: it becomes harder. And those forty five different classes they
13:25
Speaker 3: apply internationally to all all different countries, all the countries, gotcha.
13:30
Speaker 5: For the entrepreneurs and creators. Do you think they should
13:32
Speaker 5: trademark before they have traction or do you think they
13:36
Speaker 5: should get a little bit of traction and then file
13:38
Speaker 5: for the trademark. I know you get this a lot,
13:41
Speaker 5: but for the audience, so I would.
13:44
Speaker 2: Ask you, would you build a house on lane you
13:45
Speaker 2: know own?
13:47
Speaker 5: That's a great conversation. No.
13:50
Speaker 3: No, So if you're not, if you plan house with
13:54
Speaker 3: your business, then yeah, go go try to get some traction.
13:57
Speaker 3: But in this day and age where social media, we
14:00
Speaker 3: got the Internet, we can't if you're not. If you're
14:03
Speaker 3: in this with this business and you're about to invest
14:05
Speaker 3: your time, your money, and your resources, you need to
14:09
Speaker 3: secure the brand first. Why because so many brands can
14:13
Speaker 3: go viral so quick, right, and now, under the law,
14:17
Speaker 3: if your brand goes viral really fast, and what the
14:21
Speaker 3: government can say is it fails to function as a.
14:24
Speaker 2: Trademark because it actually can't.
14:26
Speaker 3: You can't identify who the source is because it took
14:29
Speaker 3: off so fast and it's so rapid.
14:31
Speaker 2: Right. So, like that big case, what they.
14:33
Speaker 3: Were saying, like those two guys trademark White Lives Matter
14:36
Speaker 3: and Kanye not gonna be able to use it, Like
14:39
Speaker 3: any real lawyer who took trademark one on one nose,
14:42
Speaker 3: That was just a lot. That whole story was a lot.
14:45
Speaker 3: Why because Black Lives Matter is not a trademark and
14:47
Speaker 3: can't be trademark. Why because the government had already said
14:50
Speaker 3: it failed to function as a trademark.
14:52
Speaker 2: So Black Lives Matter can't be registered.
14:55
Speaker 3: We know White lives can't be regised, White Lives Matter
14:58
Speaker 3: can't be registered. Well, And plus Kanye actually and it's
15:02
Speaker 3: not something I agree with, but he used it first, right,
15:05
Speaker 3: because the US is a use base.
15:07
Speaker 2: Now here's the thing.
15:08
Speaker 3: You could do your business and it could go viral
15:12
Speaker 3: like mister Tenderism and things like that. And because you
15:15
Speaker 3: have first usage, you can prove that you filed it first.
15:19
Speaker 2: But then it's gonna.
15:21
Speaker 3: Cost you twenty five times as much to foul what
15:25
Speaker 3: we call the opposition to the application that was fouled
15:28
Speaker 3: before yours, in order to prove that you were the
15:31
Speaker 3: first user, and you would and you will have the
15:34
Speaker 3: burden of proof to.
15:34
Speaker 2: Show that you were the first user.
15:36
Speaker 3: So that's why I just tell people, if you're serious
15:39
Speaker 3: about the business, you know this is something you're and
15:41
Speaker 3: if you're about to invest more than you know what
15:44
Speaker 3: the trademark costs anyway, you might as well just protect
15:48
Speaker 3: it because you're protecting your best investment, like we all
15:52
Speaker 3: protect our cars before we
15:53
Speaker 2: Drive him off the lot by getting insurance