Legal Q & A for Creative Entrepreneurs - Brittany Ratelle - Live IG replay

Hi, I'm Brittany Ratelle, and BrittanyRatelle.com, and I am a licensed attorney here in Utah. And welcome to this Monday's small business online business legal Q&A live here on Instagram. So I'm going to give a few minutes for people to jump on. So today I've decided to come in front of my Halloween display because I think really any chance to brag about and to highlight your holiday decorating, um, should be taken advantage of. So I've decided to come display it in front of my mantel today, um, that's overflowing with all of my Halloween stuff because obviously my ratio of decorations to actually surfaces to decorate, um, is completely skewed. So I'm sure I'm not the only one with that issue. So, um, hi Talk Wordy to Me, nice to see you. So I don't know if you're still traveling, but, um, I'm really jealous that I've been, um, stalking your trip back east. That looks Wonderful. Hi everyone, thanks for joining. I'm Brittany Ratelle and this is this week's free legal Q&A. I'll give just another minute to let people jump on and then I'll dive right into our question today. The question that I got was from Eyelashstina and she— I happen to know Christina and she is a really talented eyelash artist and I know she's even an educator in the— oh, you have to go? Okay, go through airport security, but thanks so much for jumping on. So, and just so you know, I do record these and I post post them to my account. So if you miss it but you are like, shoot, I wanted to hear what we were talking about this week, I post it to my Instagram. Obviously it's over there for 24 hours, but I'm also recording them and I post them on my YouTube account, which really has nothing else besides these videos. Like, I don't have a fancy, you know, done-up profile. But just so, just so you know that if you miss one of these or want to look at the previous ones that I've been doing the last few weeks, I have them all on my Instagram account, which I'll, I'll put the profile on my, um, my Linky Train Instagram so it's easy to find because Nobody's got time to be finding me online. Like, nobody's got time for that. So, okay, um, so I'll jump into the question I got today. I was talking about Christina. So Christina is an eyelash educator, she works in beauty, and her question was, when I do a live event with people, um, do I need to have some sort of waiver? And, um, answer is it kind of depends, um, on what you're doing in terms of in your live space, but My recommendation is that anytime, especially you have an in-person event, there's always an increased risk of liability of stuff happening. And so I, I think it's a really smart idea to have that as part of the signup process, the onboarding process when people sign up to come in your event. And the reason is, is when you have people in a physical space, then people can get hurt. They can slip and fall. They can— something can happen to them. They can have an allergic reaction. They can slip on some water. There can be an issue in the space. It also prevents, you know, it's another opportunity to have miscommunication about how you're handling your marketing and your content. You know, when you have live presentations and those people take, you know, they take a screenshot on their phone, which is fine if that's okay with you. Then the question becomes, you know, whose content is that, or have you spelled out what's okay for them to be able to do with that content? So My recommendation is that you're running an in-person event is that you have some sort of language in your process that describes, yeah, what's happening. So I just had one of my kids walk in. So, and a lot of times people, you'll see this like on your, on your actually event ticket page, they'll have, you know, something that says this is what you've agreed to, you know, assumption of risk. You guys have all seen that language before. So something like that. But I would also recommend that you make sure that you have contract language with whoever your event provider is, because sometimes if you're renting out a space with someone, you want to make sure that you have clear expectations in terms of who is, who's providing the care and control for the event. Who is there going to be, someone on site if there are any issues? Do you, are you supposed to have liability insurance for it? Is that something they have, or is that something that they're assuming that you have? You know, any of those assumptions you just want to make sure so that we don't have problems about assumptions. So, um, I had someone else who had a snafu with an event last weekend, and, um, you know, they didn't have a contract and there were assumptions being made about ticket sales and whether the person who had paid to rent the space was the one who was supposed to be just doing exclusive control over tickets. And then she got to her event, or actually the morning before, she found out that, um, her event space was also selling tickets, which really sucks if you're the one who's gone to the trouble to build up, to have special signage, to have people there, to have events and amenities and all these things. Events take a huge amount of work and investment, and then you get there and someone's like, oh, well, we're also going to sell tickets for our people, and could even undercut you in price, which, which could really stink. So make sure that's all set out in writing. And doing those online— I get this question a lot— those e-signing contracts are fine. You don't actually have to print it out and sign it with like an ink pen and scan it and do it back. I know that's a pain to have to go through that process. You don't have to do that. Using HelloSign or eSign or any one of those electronic sign portals works fine. So, okay, hopefully that answers that question. Is there anyone else who had some questions? You can go ahead and put it in the comment box and I can, I'd be happy to answer that. So I did a post this morning on just some podcasting tips because it's something that's been fresh in my mind. I'm actually working on launching a podcast next month. I'll be launching it. And I know as I've been working through the steps and I'm actually taking a course in it through Pat Flynn, who's a— I'm a big fan of his. I love his work and his coaching and his resource that he gives to people who are trying to hustle and make money online. But in going through the resource center and helping other classmates and people who are taking this course and getting all this work done, this preemptive work, a lot of the questions have come up again and again about people talking about podcasts. And so I kinda wanted to throw my 2 cents, 3 cents in the ring, 3 points that I see coming up again and again about using commercial music, which is, main idea is don't. Don't do it. Don't. That's not your music. I know you love your music and like you have a favorite song and like you jam to it, but you just wanna be really careful. And you know, it's gonna be fine if you probably just have it in like a live video, you know, if you're going on a run and you're taking a quick like, that's probably gonna be fine, but anything that's long-term that you're putting out to the universe that you hope will stay there and be viewed a lot of times shouldn't have any commercial music on it. So, okay. Natalie says, I own a small graphic tee company and would love to trademark some designs, but I'm scared of the cost and process. How difficult and how much can I plan on spending? Great question, Natalie. Really, the filing fees are $225, so that's what goes to the government. So that's your Bottom line cost, if you do everything yourself, that's gonna be the cost that you're gonna outlay paying the USPTO office, 'cause they're the ones, the US Patent and Trade Office, they're the ones who handle copyrights. So, and that's for a trademark process. A copyright is actually a lot smaller. So they kind of go hand in hand. Sometimes to register a copyright is normally done for literary, for actually words. So like, for example, you could copyright a book or you copyright a manuscript or a screenplay or something. Trademark, as you mentioned, is the one that actually copyrights a design. So this most often comes up when people trademark logos. Sometimes they will also do logos and a slogan attached to it. And in fact, a lot of people, like if you look at Coca-Cola, a main— man, you know, obviously a huge brand that's taken a lot of work and built up a huge intellectual property, they'll actually copyright and protect both their name, the script that they use, their logos, and even the style of their designs. You can really go deep in the woods in terms of what you protect. So if you wanna do it all on your own, then really all you'd be out is paying your filing fee for the USPTO. The problem is, is that a lot of people who do it on their own or like a quasi on your own, meaning when you do a Google search, as soon as you copyright, trademark something, you're gonna get a whole bunch of services that say, we can help you, $69, $89. And not to dig on those 'cause I know they're out there making their money, we all gotta make our money. But the problem is a lot of those are actually— they're not going to be done with an attorney, obviously, because it seems a little too good to be true to have a real attorney helping you through the process. And they might not actually have any kind of response if there's an office action. And what an office action is, is when you go through the trademark process and you prepare your packet and you put everything in and pick the right class of goods, which is kind of important because that means that you're trying to be distinctive in what type of good this is and also looking to see what else is out there and not having a good in the same class. And once you file that, if you get a response back from the USPTO— hi, Emmett, hi, bud— it's what's called an office action. And an office action means that they want some more response from you. It's not a no, it's not a hard no, it's like a maybe. But it freaks a lot of people out and there's a timeline attached to it where you need to respond and you need to— they're basically asking for more information, more clarification., and if you don't provide that back within a certain time, then your application is denied. And so, once you've gone through that effort to prepare everything, you've paid the money to get it out there, you want to make sure that you respond to those office actions and that you have someone who knows what you're doing. Can I help you in just a minute? Yeah? So, sorry guys, it's fall break, so all my kids are home and deciding to join me, right? I'm not going to open this right at the moment. Can we wait a second? So, okay, here you go. How about in the kitchen? Go knock yourself out. Ninja Red Juice. There you go. Uh, kids' natural Red Bull. So, um, hopefully that answers your questions on, on Natalie. So it definitely comes down to a cost-benefit analysis on is it going to be worth it for this particular design to go through that step. But if it's one that you find that, um, you're making a lot of money on, or it's kind of the centerpiece of your business, and one that you think is probably prone to a lot of people copying, um, and the other thing is that it's distinctive and original enough in the first place for you to even protect it. What happens to a lot of people is, you know, they'll— they have a t-shirt or they're selling something and then they see it pop up on Etsy or some other online retailer and, you know, they get really mad. I get a lot of clients, you know, people who talk to me about this and they're like, "They're stealing my stuff!" And my first question is, is, do you even know if it's original? I know that you don't feel like you copied it and I'm not calling you a thief or a stealer, but sometimes you know, there's a lot of different people who are coming up and it's kind of something that's popular in pop culture or it's having a moment, and so a lot of people are selling those goods at the same time. And if there's already a lot of other people in the marketplace that are selling at the same time, it might be— it's going to be more challenging to establish that you had first use. So even though trademark gives you the protection if you register it first, if it's already being in use enough that it's hard for you to even show that's distinctive and original, it's going to be more challenging. To get that copyright, that trademark. So again, these are some of the reasons why it's helpful to hire someone who does trademarks. So I do trademarks for people because it's a really nice one that I can do virtually online, and I can help people because it's dealing with federal law. I can help people outside of where I practice, which is here in Utah. So if you have more information, you can always reach out to me through my Instagram or my website, hello@brittanyratelle.com, and I could kind of give you a price quote of what it would be, um, to get you started up with something. Okay, great, thanks. I'm glad that helped you, Natalie. So anyone else? Um, I probably have time for like one, maybe two more questions, um, and then obviously I'm gonna have to take care of these kiddos. So we're, uh, really interested in this whole setup. Yeah, Chelsea says, can you expand a little bit on podcast contracts for guest speakers? I'm wanting to have free podcasts and video anywhere on YouTube. I don't think I'll ever charge for these. So, um, yeah, if you have someone that's coming on as a guest, you want to have a release form prepared for them. So, and what needs to be on that form is basically that you are acknowledging that by having them on and you're going to interview them, that you are going to own and you're reserving all the rights to this material. Um, and that way you have the flexibility to be able to use this material down the road. So even if you don't think you'll charge for these, um, if you think that later on you might put them on YouTube or something else, it's a good idea to, um, to go through those steps. That way you have the flexibility. What you don't want happening is you have a great guest on and it becomes like a killer episode. You know, it's— people are downloading it, it becomes a, you know, a big deal in your, in your business. And then you want to maybe do something later on. Maybe you want to pull out tidbits from that and put that into a guide or a little ebook or a pamphlet, or you want to use that in a course or something else. You know, you want to recycle content and use the best of the best, and that's part of it, and yet you haven't discussed that stuff with your guest. Obviously you can always still reach out after the fact and make it clear to them, make sure they're on the same page, but it's a lot easier if you set that expectation up right off the bat that someone's coming on, that you are establishing that this is your content, that you are gonna be in charge of releasing it on your timeline, you don't want someone preempting you unless you want that, that's part of your marketing plan, you don't want someone announcing maybe your podcast or sharing tidbits until maybe after you've broken the news, sometimes that's an important deal, with collaborations with people working together. And you also wanna outline, again, that you are, you have the ultimate rights to that content. So that's one that I'm working on because that issue is coming up a lot as I'm working on my podcast. So I'm working on a template right now to go up in my shop. So it's not done yet, but stay tuned. And if that's something that you're interested, Chelsea, then as soon as I finish it, I might be able to get that to you and then you can use that for your business purposes. So, 'cause yeah, putting stuff up in a shop, I'm realizing takes, it's a lot more time 'cause you have to have the graphics and the sales copy all the stuff. And I'm just a one-woman shop with 4 kids under the age of 7, so there are only so many hours in a day to do all the things. So there you go, that's my, uh, excuse for that. Okay, anyone else want to jump on with a quick question? Hi, Mad Dog! That's my sister Madison, and that's really nice of her because she is actually— does not have an online business at all. She is a professional opera singer. So, um, it's really sweet of her to come on and listen to her sister. So thanks. You're welcome, Chels. Yeah, anyone else? Um, Kate, do you know if the braid workshop will be recorded or posted online? I moved away and might and miss those the most. Oh shoot. Um, I don't know if they have any plans to record or post online. I know last time I went I saw someone taking pictures, and it's possible that they took video. Um, I will ask and see. Um, if not, I am planning on kind of, I might even just take a video for my own personal purposes because it's, this is such a core, these are the core questions that I'm getting again and again is, what do I need to do to set up my business, Britt? What are like the basics? I don't have a lot of money, but I know I need to be doing this stuff and I guess I should pay it. It's usually said in that tone of voice. And so for those that don't know, I'm speaking at the Braid Workshop, which is a local female entrepreneurship nurturing workshop that's going on this Thursday. So I don't know if they're recording or posting it live. I am planning on making that content available as much as I can, so I'm doing a handout for the event and I'm gonna have a handout after that available on my site, and I'm gonna put that in some of my newsletter stuff too. So if you're not on my newsletter, that's another way you can make sure that you're not missing out on the stuff I'm putting out there. It's free. All I'm asking for is your email address, people. And I know that we all have to fight those inbox battles, but I promise that I am only giving you stuff that I think is useful for you as a business owner. I'm not, I'm not even selling anything yet. I, I just am trying to make sure that people who are out there who are hustling or trying to build their businesses have as many tools as they can. And I get it that when you're starting out, there are, there is not a lot of money to be spent, um, in, in the budget for legal stuff and trying to get your, um, your head on right. But that the stuff can be really important, especially even in the beginning stages as you're trying to brand and build your business. So Thanks for the hearts, yeah. So get on my email list. If you hop to my Linktree that's on my Instagram profile, I think it's just the first one down, so I'll send you a free little cheat sheet about launching your creative business, and then I send out those newsletters weekly, and they include highlights from these discussions and also the posts that I'm doing online and stuff like from what I'm doing on this Thursday, which is that live workshop. So, okay, anyone else? I have probably time for one more question. Then I gotta go. And yes, this is my Halloween decor. Because this is like my most exciting backdrop that I have right now. I love Halloween. Anyone who knows me knows that I love Halloween. Yes, I do have a newsletter, Kate. I try to make it funny. I'm always trying to make— I'm trying to brighten this stuff up. I'm trying to add some flair. Some fit and flair to the legal stuff. Because I get that it's boring. I know that wading through contracts and IP stuff and talking about things can be— it's not, it's not the fun sexy side of business. I have no flat lays to offer you. I don't do ear grabs. I have no thigh gaps. Definitely don't have any thigh gaps. But if you're making money online, if you are a blogger, if you are an influencer, if you're a YouTuber, you're a podcaster, you are a business owner. Yay! Congratulations! And you need to act like a business owner, which means that you gotta get the stuff squared away, you know, get your business set up, get it registered, get some contracts, make sure that the people who work with you work for you, that everyone's on the same page, because it can avoid a lot of headaches, a lot of heartaches, a lot of crying and Ben Jerry's and really nervous emails and direct messages and texts to someone like me later, later when you said, shoot, this happened and I don't have a contract. And I'm not gonna judge, I'm never gonna judge, because I'm just glad that you're reaching out. But, um, there's a lot of I told you so, and I really wish that people, you know, just take your business seriously and plan for growth. Plan for it being bigger than you even can conceive now, and make sure that you're setting yourself up that you're not, you're not locked into a path. So yeah, could you write that for countrywide? So being— and bringing people in from out of state? Yeah, a contract like that is not going to be state-specific. Um, the only thing that would— that could possibly be specific to your state is at the end of most contracts like that, they have boilerplate language, which is what we call like the standard contract legalese. You've probably seen it before, things like non-exclusivity, separability clause, saying that like if any of these provisions are bad, like you don't get to throw out the whole thing, you know, just throw out the bad egg and then everything else stays. And there's usually a choice of law provision, and that says that if we have a dispute and we need to work it out, we're gonna— the laws of usually you pick your state because that means someone has to come to you and it can lower the cost of litigation. We really hope that never happens, and most people also put in an arbitration clause. Um, so, but your short answer is yes. Um, any contract like that will not be state-specific. You'd be able to use it with anyone around the country, really even internationally. You could say that U.S. laws apply. It's sometimes hard to do trademark and intellectual property stuff overseas because it depends on countries, whether they're signatory to the Berne Convention. That's the international Copyright Convention. But still, you know, if you have a guest on from Australia, you could say, look, US law applies. And you know, most people— don't you love that— understand that that's the case. So, okay, hopefully that answers your question, Chels. Okay, I better go because we're getting ready to go to a pumpkin patch today because my kids are on fall break. So I'll get going, but thanks guys for showing up. Can you, can you say bye? Bye! Please sign up for my newsletter and keep on following, and I'll be back here on Monday and come with new questions. Bring a friend or send to a friend of someone else you know has some stuff that's been worrying them, that's been keeping them up at night about their business that they need to get taken care of. Okay? Okay. Say bye-bye. Bye-bye. Cough, cough.