Today’s episode is for all our creative entrepreneurs who work or market themselves online in any capacity, and want to better understand how to protect yourselves, your business, and your brand online. YEP. We’re going there and doing a deep dive into trademarks, copyrights, and protecting yourself online as a business owner. And our guest is the absolute QUEEN at teaching this: Andrea Sager.
Today we talked with Andrea about ALLLLLl things legalities. She breaks down the top ways you need to protect yourself online as an entrepreneur, what a trademark is and why you might need it, how to go about getting a trademark, the difference between copyright and trademark, how to handle copyright infringement, and first steps you should take in approaching starting a business legally.
Andrea’s Story
Andrea is a 3x small business owner with her most recent exit at 10x her initial investment in under a year. After massively growing her law firm in 3 years, Andrea founded Legalpreneur, a bridge for the gap between legal resources and entrepreneurs at every stage of business. Her true passion is helping other entrepreneurs meet their fullest potential by leveraging the power of the law for an affordable price. The Legalpreneur Membership currently serves over 200 businesses and counting. Andrea is also the host of the hit Legalpreneur Podcast with over 80,000 downloads!
What a trademark is & why you potentially need one
Trademarks equal branding. All the things that identify your brand. Your brand name, logo, slogan, podcast name, service name, and all the things in your business that have a unique name to them. All of those can be protected with a trademark.
Copyrights are your content creation work. Photos, videos, blog posts, podcast episodes, etc. The name of the podcast can be protected by a trademark and each episode is protected by copyright. Copyrights you already, have federal protection the moment it is created.
You are not eligible to apply for a federal trademark unless you are doing business in more than one state. When you have federal trademark protection they are unbeatable, you don’t even need an attorney to help you enforce it.
How & When to Trademark
There are 45 different categories and you have to file in at least one. Most businesses qualify for one or two. You want to apply in every class that you qualify for, so that policy extends across all the goods and services that you have in your businesses.
It depends on what your personal money situation is. If money is an issue and you are testing the waters with your business, you should not apply for a trademark application right away. Right now the trademark application is taking an average of a year. Still do a thorough search of the same names, and similar names, searching Google, and social media to see if there is a similar name with similar goods or services. You file when you have momentum. You’re now to a part of testing the water to know this is a thing. You know you are no longer testing.
Trademark database: www.uspto.gov
How much does the trademark process cost on average?
DIY:
Search on your own, and apply. All you are paying is the government filing fee. It is either $250 or $300 depending on what type of application you file.
Third-Party:
There are trademark courses or they might file it for you. They can vary in price.
Law Firm/Attorney:
Some charge $550 for the search and then $1,400 for the application which includes the filing fee.
Things you don’t realize to protect yourself online
First and foremost the name. What happens a lot is similar names. The other thing is photos. Do not use a photo that does not belong to you. Do not use a photo that you don’t have a proper license to use because that is copyright infringement.
Taking a copy from someone’s website or long-form Instagram captions is an infringement. You can first reach out to them yourself or you can pay an attorney. When it comes to copyright you don’t have to have a registration. If reaching out doesn’t work, you can directly submit that copyright takedown yourself, all you have to do is know where they host their website.
What is the biggest lesson you have learned in business?
You cannot get to the highest level in business without getting to the highest level personally.
Show notes
Content Pillars Freebie: www.theheartuniversity.com/pillars
Wedding Photography Summit: www.weddingphotographysummit.com
Lightroom Editing Challenge: www.theheartuniversity.com/challenge
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