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Speaker 2: So why do business owners need to trademark their business
Speaker 2: before launching? So I always ask people, will you build
Speaker 2: a house on lane? You don't? I'm gonna ask you guys,
Speaker 2: will you build a house on land you don't own?
Speaker 1: I didn't?
Speaker 2: No, right, right cause it makes sense, right, you're gonna
Speaker 2: before we build houses in America, Right, we go and
Speaker 2: we do a title search on the land and make
Speaker 2: sure no one owns the lands. There's no leans on
Speaker 2: the land or anything like that. Because if we go
Speaker 2: and we just start building a house on land and
Speaker 2: we haven't cleared the land, the owner of the land
Speaker 2: can come tear that house down. Right. It's the same
Speaker 2: equivalent when it comes to building a business on a
Speaker 2: brand name and you don't own the name, right. And
Speaker 2: so being that I have been practicing this law for
Speaker 2: ten years, I have seen where people have invested their
Speaker 2: four one K plans or took out money, you know,
Speaker 2: from their retirement to invest in product and marketing material,
Speaker 2: only for it to be torn down by the rifle owner. Right.
Speaker 2: So I tell people, before we build brands and we
Speaker 2: build businesses, we want to make sure we're clearing the
Speaker 2: name and we're actually owning that name, so everything that
Speaker 2: we're building on top of it is ours now. Okay.
Speaker 1: So if we got to get the name to make
Speaker 1: sure that we own it, what where are we going
Speaker 1: to search for this? Like? Are there specific sites? I
Speaker 1: feel like most people have no idea. They'll just type
Speaker 1: in trade and whatever Google tells them that's what we're using.
Speaker 1: It might not be the most accurate thing. So what
Speaker 1: sites are we going through to ensure that if we
Speaker 1: use this name, we can own this name.
Speaker 2: That's a great question. So what I would first start
Speaker 2: is with the USPTO dot gov and make sure it
Speaker 2: says dot gov and not dot com, right, because there
Speaker 2: can be some you know, fraudulent sites and things like that.
Speaker 2: So start with the USPTO dot gov, and you want
Speaker 2: to start broad because you want to see does anybody
Speaker 2: own the name? But also too, this is where it's
Speaker 2: important to hire an attorney because under the law it's
Speaker 2: not about what's the same, but what can be deemed
Speaker 2: confusingly similar. So if you go to the USPTO dot
Speaker 2: gov and you search Starbucks, right, probably nothing will come
Speaker 2: up and you'll be like, oh, I'm good, I can
Speaker 2: go start a coffee company. Well, Starbucks is going to
Speaker 2: have a problem with that, because under the law it's
Speaker 2: not about what's the same ain't, but what can be
Speaker 2: deemed confusingly similar. So first I would start there, and
Speaker 2: then I would start with Google, and then possibly social
Speaker 2: media handles as well, and then just searching domains. But
Speaker 2: it's also important that we understand the nuances of the law. Right.
Speaker 2: There's forty five different classes under trademark law, and sometimes
Speaker 2: you can have brands that co exist in a marketplace.
Speaker 2: That's why we have the chocolate doft soap, mac Makeup,
Speaker 2: Mac Computer, Delta Airline, Delta, Falsett, Pandora Jewelry, Pandora Music.
Speaker 2: So your name might come up. But if it's a
Speaker 2: plummet industry and you're in a beauty industry, you make
Speaker 2: and coexist. Right. But where a lot of times people
Speaker 2: fall short entrepreneurs is they will say, Okay, my name
Speaker 2: is available, I'm gonna file the name, and they just
Speaker 2: pick a class and now they think they own that
Speaker 2: name in its entirety. You know. Recently I seen an
Speaker 2: interview from Caesar from Black Ink, and he talked about
Speaker 2: how he actually was surprised when he had his dog
Speaker 2: find an issue that he was let go from a show,
Speaker 2: the show that he thought he owned because he created
Speaker 2: black Ink and a black Ink brand. Well, what season
Speaker 2: didn't know was and he filed his own trademarks too,
Speaker 2: and he thought he had his trademarks register, but he
Speaker 2: filed him for Tattooon Services and I think for a peril.
Speaker 2: But when he did his deal with Viacom with the
Speaker 2: reality show, they went and filed the name for entertainment services.
Speaker 2: And so there's a big difference there. So it's important
Speaker 2: that you understand those nuances.
Speaker 1: And so inside that we shouldn't do this on our own.
Speaker 1: So some people will say, I can do I can
Speaker 1: figure this out by myself. Get an attorney.
Speaker 2: Get an attorney. I have about five thousand clients, and
Speaker 2: a fourth of them either did in themselves first and
Speaker 2: then they had to come to us later, or they
Speaker 2: went to one of these in internet sourcing companies right,
Speaker 2: thinking they're hiring someone who would guide them and lead them.
Speaker 2: But they're just really data transfer companies where they'll take
Speaker 2: your data and transfer it into the information system in
Speaker 2: an LLC or corporation enough to have for ownership in
Speaker 2: the business. And so that is also a great question.
Speaker 2: And the reason is is because as business owners, I
Speaker 2: always say an educated entrepreneur is a successful one. We
Speaker 2: have to understand the different legal vehicles and why they're here, right.
Speaker 2: And a lot of times people think, oh, if I
Speaker 2: got an LLC, I'm good. But the LLC might not
Speaker 2: even be the best entity type for you, right. But
Speaker 2: what we need to understand is what comes with that
Speaker 2: formation of an entity. So under the law, when we
Speaker 2: file our entities, whether it's an LLC or a corporation
Speaker 2: or partnership, under the law, under our secretary of state.
Speaker 2: We're forming in it within our state. But that says
Speaker 2: that by us creating that company, it's going to give
Speaker 2: us a legal shield to protect us, the individual owner,
Speaker 2: from any legal liability that is to arise out of
Speaker 2: our business. We also may get some tax benefits from
Speaker 2: that as well. Right, But no, no wherein the law
Speaker 2: does it says it's going to give you exclusive ownership
Speaker 2: rights to that name. Right, So you could form your
Speaker 2: business let's say in the state of Illinois, but if
Speaker 2: someone owns the trademark and Illinois said you can have
Speaker 2: this business name. But if someone owns the trademark, let's
Speaker 2: say in the state of Florida, they can shet your
Speaker 2: business now in Illinois. So that's why it's important as
Speaker 2: business owners we understand these different legal vehicles and how
Speaker 2: they work and how they're set up to protect us.
Speaker 2: The trademark is there to protect our name, our logos,
Speaker 2: our slogans, and not a lot of people know. But
Speaker 2: you can also trademark a sound as well, like you
Speaker 2: got mail.
Speaker 1: Interesting, so you brought up the state things. So now
Speaker 1: it makes me wonder there's a difference between filing the
Speaker 1: trademark and the state. Can we file federally as well,
Speaker 1: So like talk about the nuances and that that's.
Speaker 2: A great question as well, because you can file your
Speaker 2: trademark on the state level, right, but when you file
Speaker 2: it federally, you get a lot more coverage. And I
Speaker 2: always say technology is moving faster than the law. So
Speaker 2: back in the day, you used to have to prove
Speaker 2: interstate commerce in order to give federal registration. So a
Speaker 2: lot of people used the state law system to file
Speaker 2: their trademarks when before the Internet, right, Because now that
Speaker 2: we have the Internet, as long as your business is
Speaker 2: a ww dot com or you're on social media and
Speaker 2: you're offering your services or your products to anyone across
Speaker 2: the royal basically now you have interstate commerce. So with
Speaker 2: the Internet, it kind of took that away. So you
Speaker 2: want to go for the broader coverage most as possible
Speaker 2: because you know there is a case and it arise
Speaker 2: out of the state of Illinois, and it was in
Speaker 2: the nineteen fifties where there was this restaurant, a small
Speaker 2: mom and pop restaurant and they sold burger shakes and fries, right,
Speaker 2: and so then there was a Florida restaurant that adopted
Speaker 2: the same name and they old burger shakes and fries
Speaker 2: as well, and so the Florida restaurant began to grow
Speaker 2: very fast and very rapidly. And there was supposed to
Speaker 2: be an agreement that they will never come into the
Speaker 2: state of Illinois. Well, we know money talk and buy
Speaker 2: craft walk, and they came in the state of Illinois. Well,
Speaker 2: the state of Illinois restaurant filed a declaratory judgment under
Speaker 2: federal law to kick them out of the state of Illinois,
Speaker 2: and the court accid them. In the state of Illinois,
Speaker 2: they were the first users, right. The court accid them, well,
Speaker 2: how far does your customers come to your restaurant? And
Speaker 2: this is a restaurant it's like in Matoon, Illinois, which
Speaker 2: is like maybe like two hundred miles south of Chicago,
Speaker 2: but it's right off a major highway in Illinois. And
Speaker 2: they said, well, they come from about a twenty mil radius.
Speaker 2: And so the court said, okay, well this company cannot
Speaker 2: come within a twenty mile radius of your restaurant. But
Speaker 2: now you can't go outside of twenty mil radius of
Speaker 2: you restaurant because they have the federal registration and unfortunately
Speaker 2: federal trump state. So at do you know, like they
Speaker 2: boxed them in. But what's the name of that company?
Speaker 2: Can you guys imagine, like, what was the name of
Speaker 2: that restaurant, McDonald's. That's my first I McDonald's. What's the
Speaker 2: other one? Burger King. So if you google right now
Speaker 2: the original Burger King, it's still gonna come up today
Speaker 2: and it's twenty twenty four and that restaurant in Withsoon
Speaker 2: Illinois is still open as the original Burger King.
Speaker 1: Again, there was another Burger King.
Speaker 2: Before Burger King, exactly in Illinois. So the big corporation
Speaker 2: Burger King. It originated out of Florida, out of the
Speaker 2: state of Florida, but the state of Illinois Burger King.
Speaker 2: They were the first users, but they didn't have federal registration.
Speaker 2: So that's why it's so important that we are. They're
Speaker 2: still there to this day. It's one store. It's just
Speaker 2: one store because they can never grow outside of that
Speaker 2: twenty mile radius.
Speaker 1: They could put like four stores inside the twenty miles,
Speaker 1: but they don't make sense.
Speaker 2: They wouldn't even matter.
Speaker 1: Is not Burger King.
Speaker 2: It's a restaurant, a fast food. It's a restaurant and
Speaker 2: they sell burger shakes and fries and it's called the
Speaker 2: original Burger King. So if you ever google Burger Kington, Illinois,
Speaker 2: it will come up so with.
Speaker 1: The I mean, that's an incredible story, but it makes
Speaker 1: more sense to file federally or is it? Yes, I
Speaker 1: think it's more expensive as well.
Speaker 2: Well it is, but sometimes the state registration is not
Speaker 2: as it's effective and impact of as you need it
Speaker 2: to be, especially in a day and age where the
Speaker 2: internet is here. Right, and see another thing why that
Speaker 2: story is so important is because trademarks are legacy builders. Right.
Speaker 2: A trademark can outlive you. Coca Cola been registered since
Speaker 2: eighteen ninety three, Mercedes since nineteen oh three, right, and
Speaker 2: so a trademark can like so the original people who
Speaker 2: created that Burger King that that was a family owned business,
Speaker 2: so imagine what they could have did and expanded with
Speaker 2: their company. But they are now attached to this judgment
Speaker 2: out of federal court since the nineteen sixties, so it
Speaker 2: limited their legacy. So I always tell people you want
Speaker 2: to secure your brand, not only to secure your bag,
Speaker 2: but you want to secure your brand so you can
Speaker 2: secure your legacy.
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