Today I am talking about the power of Trademark Registration. A Trademark allows you to protect yourself. You can enforce the Trademark on your own which gives you a cost effective option down the road.
In this episode, we’ll cover:
- Federal versus State Registration
- Trademark infringement – the number one benefit
- How to get a Federal Trademark
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The Legalpreneur Podcast is advertising/marketing material. It is not legal advice. Please consult with your attorney on these topics. Copyright Legalpreneur Inc 2022
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Episode 184: The Power of a Trademark Transcript
Andrea: [00:00:03] Welcome to the Legalpreneur Podcast. I’m your host, Andrea Sager, founder and CEO of Legalpreneur, Inc. As a serial entrepreneur and someone that works exclusively with small business owners legally protecting their business, I’m dedicated to covering common legal issues faced by business owners, providing you with the business knowledge you need to catapult your businesses growth and showing you just how some of the world’s most elite entrepreneurs have handled these legal and business issues themselves in true attorney fashion. The information in this episode is not legal advice. This is for informational purposes only, and you should always consult with your attorney before implementing any of the information in the show.
Andrea: [00:00:48] Hey. Hey, welcome back to another episode of the Legalpreneur podcast. Today we’re going to be chatting about trademarks and whether you actually need a trademark registration. Now. Before. Get into that Legalpreneur alive. I’m so excited. Like I’m so pumped. You guys, we are on the verge. I keep saying it, but seriously, like, I’m about to make a very big speaker announcement and oh, I’m so pumped. So VIP is going to be selling out. We only have a number of tickets, very limited number of tickets. So if you want your chance at meeting these speakers, get your VIP ticket now. If you are a legal member, you get your discount. So don’t forget about that. But seriously, that’s all I have to say. Stop waiting. Get your ticket. Phenix, Arizona, October 5th to seventh. Like all things business and personal growth. Be there or be square. Do you need a trademark registration? It’s not illegal to operate business without a trademark registration. However, the power that the trademark registration gives you, that’s what is so enticing to having the registration. And I’m talking about a federal registration. So first, let’s talk about what makes you eligible for federal registration, number one. What you’re doing has to be in commerce. So for business purposes has to be used in interstate commerce, which means in more than one state. So if you’re a local business, let’s say you have a local coffee shop or you are a massage therapist, you’re probably not eligible for federal registration because you’re not doing business in more than one state.
Andrea: [00:02:31] And that’s a requirement in order to get a federal trademark registration. So if you are eligible for a federal registration, you want that federal registration. You don’t want to go to the state route even though it is cheaper. But a federal registration will trump a state registration every day of the week. So if you’re eligible for federal, don’t waste your money on a state registration. Go get the federal registration. If you’re not eligible for federal, then yeah, you probably do want to get the state registration. So why might you need the trademark registration? You guys. It’s the power that it gives you. So once you have that registration, you can then. Go online, find who’s infringing on your business, and submit takedowns to those platforms. Facebook. Instagram. Etsy. Amazon. Shopify. Poshmark. Ebay. Like wherever it is. Every third party platform has a takedown procedure for trademark infringement. Because if they don’t abide by that. Process, they are then eligible for trademark infringement. However, in order for these platforms to consider your request for trademark infringement, you have to have a federal trademark registration. So even if you have the state registration, they’re not going to consider your request. They have to see a federal registration. That’s the number one benefit, in my opinion, for small business owners other than obviously like you can use the pretty outer circle symbol. You can actually. You know, people can search and find it in the trademark database. Why you would need it is to monitor and enforce your trademark on your own.
Andrea: [00:04:28] You can submit these takedowns without an attorney. You don’t have to have me or another trademark attorney submit these takedown takedowns for you. You can do it on your own. That’s a huge benefit. And one of the reasons why you really need one is because it’s actually a lot less costly down the road. To enforce that trademark. What I’m going to share with you next week is the story about how my client actually made $25,000 off of her trademark in passive income. It’s one of those stories. It’s like, oh, yes, you did everything right. Thank you. Thank you for doing it right. It’s like, seriously, one of those times where I just think the client, I’m like, thank you so much for actually listening and. Doing what I told you. So I’ll share that whole story with you next week. Now, like I said, it’s not illegal to operate without a trademark registration, but having it gives you peace of mind knowing that you’re not infringing on somebody else. And it’s never like, quote unquote needed as far as, hey, you, you might get in trouble or you’re going to get sued by this person or that person if you don’t have it. But if you do have the registration, it’ll lower those the chances of any of those bad things happening. You always want to have a federal trademark registration as long as you’re eligible for one. How do you get it? You can DIY. Do it on your own at us gov.
Andrea: [00:05:59] You can take our trademark course, which is at the trademark course. Learn everything you need to know for all the trademarks that you have and need. We also teach you how to actually file and come up with new names because you’ll learn during the search module, which is the longest and most important module, that you may already be infringing on somebody and you don’t even know it. So we teach you how to actually come up with a new name to replace something that turns out to be infringement. And then after the trademark course, you have a filing with an attorney. So that would be like through Sager law or another trademark attorney, and that’s for those people that have more money than time. So if you have more time than money, you probably want to DIY at USPTO dot gov or take the trademark course to learn how to do it on your own as well. But seriously, if you’re eligible for federal protection, get that federal protection. I can’t wait to share this story with you next week because the client, like, even she was like, holy shit. I was like, Yeah, girlfriend, I’m so excited for you. So. All right. Don’t freak out if you don’t have a federal registration yet. Like You’re not going to go out of business. Probably not because you don’t have it, but it could cause issues down the road if you don’t have it. So go get it. Let me know if you have questions.
[00:07:24] I’ll see you next time.
Andrea: [00:07:30] Here at Legalpreneur, we’re committed to providing a supportive legal community for all business owners. I know how scary the legal stuff can be. If you found this information helpful. I would be so grateful if you could share it with a fellow business owner. And quite frankly, it doesn’t cost anything to write, review or subscribe to the show. Your support helps me reach more listeners, which allows me to support more business owners in their entrepreneurial journey. Have any questions or comments about the show? Feel free to drop me a line on Instagram, I promise. I read all of the messages and comments and if you want to be a guest on the show or know someone that would make a great guest, simply fill out our application form and a team member will reach out if we think it’s a good fit. I’ll see you in the next episode.
