Building and Protecting Brand Value

Welcome to today's webinar. My name is Jesse Warner. I'll be your host today with Achieve CMO. I'm excited to have Alexis Nilsson with us as well to talk about building and protecting brand value. Looks like we're gonna be a small group. We did have more registered, so hopefully we'll have more people join as we go. But since it is 11 o'clock, I do want to get started. Just a couple of housekeeping items here. Maybe. There we go. Just please keep your microphone muted when you're not speaking. You're also welcome to use the chat function to ask any questions or share comments. We will have a Q&A session at the end. If it's just a few of us here, we can also keep it a little more casual, but feel free to raise your hand. There is a raise your hand feature on Zoom. Also, as a note, this session is going to be recorded. So if you happen to miss the live session, you'll be watching the recording here and we'll be sending that out. As with anything, you know, you're spending time and energy and being here, so remove distractions, be present with us, take out a notebook and pen, write down your thoughts, impressions as they come to you. And hopefully we'll have a good presentation today. So I'm excited to jump in and get started. So a little bit about me. My name is Jesse Warner. I am the CEO and founder of Achieve CMO. I am a chief— I'm a fractional chief marketing officer. So I've been doing this for about 6 years. Prior to starting Achieve CMO, I was a marketing executive at 5 different companies. And so I've been doing this for over 18 years. I also have a Master of Business Administration, a Bachelor of Science in Marketing. At this point, I've worked with over 50 companies to improve their marketing strategies. So experience in a lot of different industries. And so I've seen a lot, everything from the one-man show to the Fortune 500. And I'm very experienced in the tactical side of marketing. So a lot of demand generation, including things like SEO, email marketing, Google Ads, social media, partner marketing. I've launched call centers in the Philippines, done a lot of events, also very technical. So a lot of experience in sales operations. So I've implemented Salesforce, Zoho, HubSpot, also developed a lot of websites. So just a lot of experience over the years. And so that's kind of my background. I'm excited to be here with you today. My portion of today's discussion is really gonna be about branding. What is it? How do you think about it? And one of the, the best books I've read on branding is really, it's a book called The StoryBrand by Donald Miller. And, and the idea here of the StoryBrand framework is that you have a character who has a problem. They meet a guide who gives them a plan, calls them to action, and that results in success or failure. And you might be saying, Jesse, wait, I thought we were talking about brand. This is, looks like a story that you're telling. Well, the reality is that your brand is about your story. It's about you and the, the journey that you take somebody down, and it represents all of the touchpoints of that journey, right? But we're gonna go through a little bit of it. The important thing here to remember is that your brand is not the hero of the story. The character's the hero of the story. So if you kind of go through this framework that the Donald Miller presents. He talks about Luke Skywalker, Star Wars. You know, Luke Skywalker, his character, he has a problem. The evil empire is after him. He meets a guide, Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, to give them a plan. Says, hey, trust in the Force. Calls them to action. Hey, go fight. Results in the Death Star being destroyed. This storyline gets played out in all sorts of different movies. Another one is, uh, The Hunger Games. You know, you got Katniss She's the character, she has a problem, survive the Hunger Games, meets Haymitch, gives them a plan, endear the public, calls them to action, results in success, right? And you know, again, the paradigm here is that your brand is not the hero of the story. Your customer is. Often what we wanna do is we wanna talk about us, us, us, us. Here's my company, here's what we do, here's how we solve the problem. Instead of making the customer the hero, right? And that affects the way you think about your brand. It affects the way you do messaging. And that's what we wanna do today. We wanna talk about this StoryBrand and how to create a brand that actually helps the character have success, right? When we break it down into marketing terms and in, in maybe more familiar, we have a character who is a potential customer. right? They then have a problem, right? So there's some sort of pain or opportunity that you're gonna present or that they're, they're suffering. They need a guide. That's your brand. And then they give them a plan. That's your product or solution, right? And we're gonna break these down. So your character is what in marketing we call buyer personas. These are the people that are actually buying your solution. I used to work for a company called Spingo as a general manager. And what we did is we created event calendars and we would work with companies, you know, like here locally, think of Salt Lake Tribune or KSL, these publications, and they would have an event section on their site. Well, Spingo would power that event calendar. And so we would allow people to add events and also to promote their events. And we would share the ad revenue with the publisher. Well, when we first started working, we were getting like 10,000 events added every month, right? And we're like, man, all, all these people that need our services, 10,000 people. Well, what we found is that really not all of them actually could use our services or had the money to use our services. So what we started to do was create buyer personas. So we just asked the question, which of these best describe you? I am a volunteer. I work for a nonprofit organization. I work for a promotion group. I specialize in events. And, and what we learned really quickly is that Volunteer Vicki and Nonprofit Nancy had no money. And so to spend time and energy on them from a sales perspective didn't make sense. So we actually redesigned the product to have a self-serve option for Volunteer Vicki and Nonprofit Nancy. And then what we did is we focused in on our ideal client profile, which was Professional Paul. And he was, they did large nationwide events, concerts, you know, rodeos, festivals, things like that. And what we learned is that professional Paul, there were pains that he had as a, the character in this problem. And we focused in on trying to solve his specific pain points, right? We weren't trying to solve everybody's pain points necessarily, even though everybody could be a buyer, all of those buyer personas could buy from us. From the sales side, we wanna say, let's go focus in on professional Paul. We live in the world of AI and ChatGPT and other tools are really awesome at helping us understand at a high level who our buyer personas are. So you can go open up ChatGPT. I'm not gonna do it with you today, but you could go ask it, create a buyer persona for a VP of operations. Now, the more specific that you get with that, uh, the better that you're gonna understand the character, right? So you can say, hey, this is what we do, right? So if you think about my company Achieve CMO as a fractional chief marketer, my buyer persona is often a business owner who has maybe 5 to 50 employees. They're growing, right? But they don't, they need somebody who has experience, but they don't, maybe they can't afford to pay a full-time salary. So what I want to do is I want to understand who that buyer is. I'm trying to understand the character. And then once I understand the character, I can then define what the problems are, right? So in this example, just by typing create a buyer persona, you can see it gave me, hey, here's Victoria, VP of Operations, education, experience, demographics, goals and motivations, challenges, whatever, right? Now again, you can be more specific on this. But it gives you a good idea of where to kind of start. Then you talk about the problem or the pain, right? So you've got a character, we just talked about that, a buyer persona who has a problem, some sort of pain or opportunity. In marketing, what we want to do is we want to dive deeper into those problems, right? So saying, okay, this is, this is a messaging framework or, or kind of a pain framework, if you will. Yeah. And this is an example from when I used to work at Workfront. Uh, you know, they had poor alignment and visibility. So the problem was poor alignment and visibility. The things that were causing that problem were change or, or lack of visibility, course corrections. Um, and so if you get deeper into it, you can, you can see that change causes frustration, differing currencies in market, economics, competitive landscape, it's difficult course correct, right? So when we look at the the pain of that, we can then say, how do I solve that pain, right? And again, ChatGPT is awesome at helping you do this. So you can actually say, okay, I've got my buyer persona. What kind of problems does this person have? What causes those problems? Can you gimme details around those problems? Can you put it in a table for me? And so then you'll all of a sudden see, okay, here's my VP of Operations. Inefficient processes and workflows is a problem. It's caused by a lack of standardized procedures. And then you can actually— it'll give you some more details. Not clearly defined processes, inconsistent workflows, inadequate documentation, right? Another way to think about this is a framework called the Jobs to Be Done framework. And so you can again use GPT and say, hey, use the Jobs to Be Done framework to highlight some of the problems or the jobs that need to be done. So if I'm looking at the VP of Operations, they're saying, okay, I wanna ensure operational efficiency, drive strategic decision making, mitigate operational risk, right? Whatever those are. But again, if we can understand the problem, then our brand can come in and as a guide and help us then guide the customer through it, right? And this is where your brand come in. So I've gotta buy a persona or a character. We understand the problems that they have. Now we're gonna introduce a guide into the equation. Your brand is the guide, and the best guides are people that have been there and done that. They understand the situation, they empathize with the character's fears and insecurities, they have authority, they have experience, and then they provide a plan that helps the character win. If you've ever gone, you know, whitewater river rafting, I just went about a month ago with an entrepreneur group. And we had a guide, right? And the good guides, they're gonna say, hey, you know what? Hey, look, there's this really cool landmark over here, right? Or, hey, the current's right here. We're gonna go over this. You might fall out of the boat, so hang on tight, right? But they're people that understand the pains and the problems of the buyer, and then they can say, hey, here's a solution that helps you do it. But again, it's about making the character successful. Not making you look good. And, and this is really where we're gonna talk about brand, right? We're talking about branding today. We're, we're excited to have Alexis talk about protecting that, that brand here in a little bit. But the strategy that we're talking about here is kind of threefold. So we talk about brand strategy, we're talking about brand vision, we're talking about brand identity, and then we're talking about the brand experience. For a lot of people, we say brand and they immediately kind of think of this brand identity. Right? So it's, oh yeah, it's my name, it's my logo, it's my designs, the colors and things that I use, right? But in reality, it's, it's all of this. It's the vision, the identity, and the experience. All of that together is what actually creates a brand, right? There's a great book called Beyond Entrepreneurship or, or B2.0. He talks about brand vision in kind of 3 Areas. So he talks about purpose, core values, and mission. So if, let's just say I'm gonna start a brand new company before I ever create the logo, the colors, the design, the name, I need to get this clear. I need to understand the why behind my brand, and that's what a brand vision is. So the purpose statement is this, it's this fundamental reason for the organization's existence. It's like this guiding star that you're always working towards but never attaining, and it should serve the company for 100 years. And then you've got the core values that are these principles, these, this philosophy that's often extension of the core values of the leaders of the company. And then you've got a big mission, some big, hairy, audacious goal. And then once that's completed, you're gonna go on. So I'm gonna walk through these for a minute, but that purpose represents the why of an organization. Here are some examples: to make the world more secure, to enhance decision-making power, to be a company that gives unlimited opportunity to women, to help people with mental impairments realize their full potential, to provide solutions that protect the environment and improve the quality of life, to improve the quality of life through innovative human therapeutics. Now you see, none of these have to make $100 million, right? In fact, we don't even have numbers in this number because we're always trying to get there, but we're never quite right. All right. There's always ways, more ways to make the world more secure. There's always more ways to give opportunity to women, right? And so that's what the purpose is. It's like, okay, what am I, why am I doing this? What am I actually trying to accomplish in the world? And then you have core values, right? So these core values are these guiding principles. Couple of examples. We genuinely care. We listen to and we serve people. We face challenges with optimism. We recognize there's always options, right? We own it. And you can create these core values. And again, this, this exercise today is not about going deep into any one of these, but rather to show the bigger picture. But I would encourage you, think about your core values. Think about your purpose, because it could change the way that you think about branding, the way you think about your experience and the logo and the design you're doing, right? And you want your brand to reflect the values that you talk about here. And then you set some sort of mission. The mission, if you've ever heard the word big, hairy, and audacious, or a BHAG, that's what we're talking about here. We're saying, hey, it's got this clear finish line, but it's gonna actually force us to change our processes. I mean, we're thinking big, we're thinking 3 to 5 years ahead and saying, I don't actually know how to get there yet. But if I can get there, this is what it's gonna look like, right? So put a man on the moon the next decade. This famous one from John F. Kennedy, right? Provide life-saving training, 20,000 pilots by 2020. Beautify 160 spaces by end of 2020. Impact 8,000 lives. Develop 100 world-class leaders, right? So again, together, this brand vision is where you start your branding exercise. Then you can get into the themes like brand identity. So this is, you know, your name, your logo, your design, your personality. And I'm gonna talk about these here as well, right? Because you want that identity to reflect the vision and the purpose of it. And if you understand your characters, you also need to take that into consideration, right? Who are the people that are buying my products and services? And what do they expect from my brand? I'm gonna solve their problem. How? What am I gonna do? Am I, am I gonna be funny or whimsical? Or is this something serious? Like, what is that, that identity that you wanna go through, right? And your name, logo, tagline is definitely part of this, right? So the name for your company, it's an important decision. We often pick names based on availability of the domain. Oh, I don't have a.com. Oh, I guess I can't use that name, right? Or, or maybe, you know, and Alexis is probably getting into some of the trademarks and things like that that maybe prevent you from choosing a name. But if you can find the right logo, the right name, the right tagline, it can catch your customer's attention. It can incite curiosity, inspire them to action. These logos here I have on the left— Walmart, Nike, Coca-Cola, FedEx, right? These are well-known names and brands, and, and there's power behind them, right? I see the Nike swoosh. As a kid, I always wanted Nike shoes. We were fairly poor. I never got the Nike shoes, right? So when I get older, I get money. What do I wanna do? I want the prestige of Nike or whatever it is, right? And there's value and power in those name logos and taglines. You often also create what's called a brand style guide, right? So you're gonna look at the, the, the colors, the fonts, the buttons, the iconography, the color palettes you're gonna use. This can then serve as the foundation for all of your future marketing and sales materials, right? The, the website colors and the design and the fill. And, and often you can have a designer go out and create this for you, right? And you wanna make sure that your product design is also aligned with that brand, right? Apple does a great job of this. You know, they've got a lot of different products, but they all feel on brand, right? They feel like it's the same company, it's the same pro— organization that's creating the iPad that's also providing the Mac Pro or, or whatever else, right? You, there's a certain feel, even in their packaging and the way that they do that. All of that's really important. And then, you know, last thing you were talking about here is, is brand personality. And here we're talking about, you know, the colors and there's psychology behind this. You know, if my values, in this example, I'm here looking at the 5 values, maybe sincerity, excitement, confidence, sophistication, ruggedness, right? These are 5 words that describe my brand. And then if I look at each of those words, I could kind of break it down and say, okay, what does it mean to be sincere? Well, it means, okay, I'm gonna be down to earth or family oriented, honest, wholesome. And then you say, okay, well what colors or what What fonts reflect sincerity or excitement or competence, right? And you can use those values to actually help determine what kind of colors, kind of fonts, what kind of personality you're gonna create. Another way to think about this is if your brand was a person and they were up on stage, what would they be dressed like? You know, what would they be wearing? How would they talk? Because that same personality, you want it to be reflected in everything you do. And then you can now create a brand experience, right? So, okay, I, I understand who I am. I understand my mission. I also know my characters. I know who, what the problems are that they're trying to solve. Let's create an experience for them that reflects the things, that journey that I'm trying to take them down. When you're looking at brand experience, there's 4 elements. Story, positioning, journey, and consistency. I'm gonna go into each of these, here as well. So again, I'm going fast. I understand that we're gonna, we're gonna share this presentation with you, put it in a PDF. You can look at it later. And we also have the recording. But what I wanted to do is show the bigger picture of brand, right? So with the brand experience, it often starts with the company's origin story. So think of, you know, Facebook's tale of a Harvard sophomore and his roommate. They're on a mission to create a website to connect students on campus. Apple's story of two young guys working out of the garage. They wanna go democratize access to computers, right? But that founder's story can help your customer earn trust, inspire confidence, and spark emotion, positive emotion. Why? Because remember, your brand is the guide. If they say, hey, Guide, oh wait, you understand me because your story, I, I believe you. I have trust in you because your story is inspiring that confidence. It gives me trust that you know what you're doing. So there's a, a lot of power in a brand's origin story. And if you can tell that well, you can, you can bring it into, into your website, into your marketing, other ways. And then there's brand positioning, right? So one way to think about this from a positioning perspective is you're saying, okay, who is in the, in the target? Who is in the consumer target, right? What slice of it that we're trying to do? So in this example, we're gonna talk about Smart Cookie, which is a healthy cookie for women. That's, this is what they wanted to do, right? So they said, okay, two suburban working women who want to be healthy. If I were using Spingo as my example, I would say, to professional Paul, who is a professional event organizer, right? Your brand is what? So how do— what's the category in the market that your brand is playing? What is the industry that you're playing in? So in this case, Smart Cookie is the healthy cookie option. Healthy cookie is the category that we are playing in. So I'm saying suburban working women who want to be healthy. So not every suburban working woman, but people— women that want to be healthy. My brand, Smart Cookie, is the premier healthy cookie option. So I'm talking about the category. And then there's your benefit: that is the guilt-free cookie to help you stay in control of your health. This is kind of the promise that you're making to the target. And it's the benefit that you're providing. And that's because here's the proof in blind test— blind taste test. Smart Cookies match layers and taste but have only 100 calories, right? So when you're thinking about brand positioning and how you're positioning your company and your products in the market, it's important to understand where, where you are. And I, I don't wanna just say, and I thought I had a slide, I forgot to put it in here, but don't play in the dumb space, right? Basically what it is, is like your company does it really well and your competitors even do it really well, but your consumers don't care. They don't even want it, right? And I've seen a lot of startups do that in the positioning side of their brand, which is like, hey, we have the best features, the best thing. And the consumer's like, look, I don't even care about any of that. And then your competitor's like, we also have it. And the consumers are like, I don't care. I don't use that. Right? And so when you're positioning, you know, think about this kind of framework, which is like, who's my target? What category are we playing in? What's the key benefit? And how do I stand out from the competition? And then, you know, from a journey perspective, right? Your customer journey provides the character, the guidance and direction they need. To have that brand experience. These are, these are what are called customer journey maps. These are a little more pretty. You can do this in a spreadsheet. You can draw it on a piece of paper, right? It doesn't have to be super sophisticated or, or, or pretty. But what you're trying to do is you're trying to understand where do they enter the funnel and where do I want 'em to go? And I wanna identify all of the touchpoints along the way. right? Oh, maybe they heard about me from a friend, then they visit my website, then they ask people for advice, and then they fill out a form on my site, and then they get an email from me, and then a phone call, and then we send a contract, right? Whatever that looks like, you want to just map it out. And you want to have your brand consistent across all of that. So all the pre-purchase behavior, that color, that design, that look, that feel, should be consistent. And then as they go through the purchasing cycle, it should be consistent. After they purchase, it should still be consistent, right? Smaller companies, we tend to kind of be all over the place with a lot of this, right? It's like, okay, I've got this sales flyer that's got a pretty design, and then you go to my website, doesn't even look at all like that. And then I have in my email, I've got like a different signature, or maybe my logo is different. Or whatever it is, like you're just not being consistent in it. So what you wanna do is create that brand consistency across the whole thing, and then you kind of bring it all together, right? So we're talking about brand strategy. You've got your brand vision, you've got your brand identity, your brand experience. All of that represents brand, right? And if you come back to the StoryBrand framework, You know, we have a character, right? We understand that as a buyer persona, they have a problem. They understand the problem. They need a guide. Your brand is that guide, gives them a plan, calls them to action, and results in success or failure. This last piece of giving them a plan, this is finally where we're actually talking about our solution or our product that, that we're giving them, right? And so your brand gives them a product or service solution that solves their problems. Leads them to success. And your website should really lay out that plan, right? Here, here's two examples that kind of do that, right? In this example, grow your grocery business. This is what they're trying to accomplish. So the end goal is that your grocery business is growing. How are they doing that? With an e-commerce solution. How did they get started? What's the call to action? Schedule a demo that then results in success. Uh, this one maybe shows a little bit better. Get through your divorce, right? So they're start— they're targeting women going through a divorce with a team that knows and cares. Here's call to action, schedule consultation. And then what do you want? Happy women at the end, right? And so your website and your brand is reflecting that journey of like, okay, I've got this character who has a problem, calling them to action. Giving them a solution, right? That results in success. And that's ultimately what we want to do when we're creating brand, right? Okay. So that was a lot. You guys okay? Any, any questions? Is that before I maybe turn it over to Alexis on, on branding or any thoughts that you want to ask? Can't see any of your guys' faces, but I'm just going to assume that you guys are like, wow, Jesse, that was awesome. I have everything I need and I'm going to go study this PDF when you send it to me. Yeah, that's what Carol says. She says, yep, you're right. Okay. What I'm going to do now is I'm going to turn the time over to Alexis because we are excited to have her So excited to learn from her now about how do you protect— we spent all this time, all this money and energy building a brand, how do we now protect it? So Alexis, take it away.

Okay, well, thanks Jesse. I'm really excited to be here and to talk about how to protect your brand. And I think, I mean, everything that Jesse's talked about is really important for creating the kind of lasting successful brand that I think everyone hopes to build. No matter what your product is or your services that you offer. So, but as your brand grows and it gains recognition, there's another side to this equation, and I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with that, which is you want to protect that brand value that you've worked so hard to build. And so what I want to talk to you about today is just kind of some legal mechanisms to make sure that you've protected that brand from the, from the beginning, so you don't run into the kinds of legal problems down the road that end up being pretty costly for everybody. My name is Alexis Nelson. I'm a registered patent attorney. I've been a patent attorney for 22 years. I've worked for a lot of big firms locally, and then also in different places. I was of counsel with a firm in San Jose. I'm of counsel currently with a firm in New York and also with a firm in town, Kuenzler Bean Adamson. I have my own patent firm now called Silicon Slopes IP, and I love to help business owners with building their brand and protecting that brand. So I'm excited to to do here with you guys today. Um, let's see, I'll see if I can share the screen and I don't know, I was having some issues with this previously, but let me see if I can do it. Okay, can you see that? Looks like— oh, let's see. Yeah, looks like I got that on there. Okay, well, um, okay, this is just my intro slide. So yeah, I just— today I just want to talk about, um, securing trademarks as a first kind of way to protect your brand, and then also, um, obtaining patents to safeguard your innovations and monitoring and enforcing your IP rights. To prevent infringement and unauthorized use. Let me see if I can go to the next slide. It's literally the hardest part of this for me. How do I go to the next slide? Anyway, I don't know. Jesse, do you have my slides by chance? Maybe you might be able to help me with this. Let's see. Here we go. Here we go. Did that switch it for everybody? Well, anyway, these are some examples of trademarks. So I wanted to talk first about just what is a trademark. Sometimes there's some confusion about that. But a trademark is just— it can be a wordmark, like any— like the name of your company or a name, a slogan, or a tagline, like Jesse was talking about. Or it can also be a design mark, like a logo or any kind of design that designates your brand. So securing a trademark gives you exclusive rights to that mark.

Any—

in connection with the goods and services that you set forth in your trademark application. It gives you the legal power to stop others from using a name or logo that's too similar to yours, and it gives you the ability to protect your brand from dilution in the marketplace. So we will talk about that a little bit more later in this presentation, but beyond the legal protection, it also adds tremendous value to your brand because as your business grows, so does the value of your trademark. It becomes a valuable asset because it can be licensed, sold, or, or used as collateral. And so it's essentially, it's not just protecting your brand, but it's building equity in, in your brand. So let me, um, my next one. This should not be this hard, I know, but let's see. Here we go. Okay, so, so this sign you guys are probably familiar with, these different designations. The first one is just the TM, which can be used as a superscript or subscript. And then that designates something as a trademark. And this one, the R with a circle around it, designates it as a registered trademark. And this is— our goal is to get from the TM to the R with the circle around it. And the way we do that is by filing a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. So what makes a good trademark from a legal perspective? Which is it's going to be a little bit different than what makes a good trademark from the branding perspective, but not, but not a lot different. But from a legal perspective, a good trademark is one that the Patent and Trademark Office will register because it's registering the trademark that gives you something that you can protect. So like, like I said, we want to be able to use those trademarks offensively so we can prevent others from using it. Or a confusingly similar variation of it. And we also want to be able to use it defensively to stop others from trying to shut down your use of the trademark by saying that you're infringing theirs. So although it's possible to file a trademark application yourself, there's a lot of misinformation out there about how to do that and what's— and what you should be considering. So I just want to note a couple of things that seem to be common misunderstandings. One is that just because you have a domain name, it doesn't mean you have a protectable trademark. Those are two different processes. And so even though, you know, you probably want to have a domain name that identifies your product, you should probably— think about the trademarkability of that domain name first. Also, just because you don't find an identical registered trademark in the USPTO database doesn't mean that your trademark can be registered. So conducting a thorough search is critical. We have to make sure that there's no confusingly similar variations of your trademark that are already out there, and those could be registered trademarks or unregistered trademarks. And, and either of those will potentially prevent registration of your trademark. So overlooking this step could lead to some really costly disputes down the road if it turns out that your trademark is too similar to someone else's. Let's see, so the way that we get from this TM to the registered trademark with the circle around it is We need to look at your trademark the same way that the USPTO would— is going to look at it, and the same way that the courts look at it. And the way that they do that is on this continuum of where you have a continuum from generic names to fanciful names where they get The generic names really have no protection at all. Those are weak names. And then all the way over to fanciful marks, which are strong and have the best protection, and they're also the easiest to register. So where your trademark lands on this continuum is going to determine how easy it's going to be able for you to get your trademark to register in the first place, and then also how easy it's going to be for you to be able to protect the market that's challenged. Generic marks are at the one end of the spectrum, which get no protection at all. Those are like the word bread for bread, or it's just the name of whatever your product is that is commonly used to identify that product. Yellow cab for taxi services would also be generic. The next category are descriptive marks, and those describe your goods or services. So like Bank of America for banking, American Airlines for airlines, Apple Pie for potpourri, anything that's descriptive. And this is where it's a little tricky because usually when I work with small businesses or startups, you know, they're trying to pick a descriptive mark because they want it to come up, you know, in the Google searches. And but it's really, you're going to be better off picking something more unique, more distinctive in terms of being trademark protectability. So, so the next step on the, the next category of trademarks are going to be suggestive marks. We really want to get into this. This is the territory we want to get into when we're thinking about trademarks. And so the suggestive marks are suggestive of your goods and services, but they don't describe them, and it's not the name of them. So Jaguar for a car, Airbnb for the online vacation rentals, Chicken of the Sea for tuna. There's a lot of trademarks that kind of fall into this suggestive category, and it's It's a good place to be. It's not too difficult to get a trademark registered if you have a suggestive mark, as long as you're not too similar to another mark.

There's a question here, Carol, saying, what are some ways we could use the name— use a name that is trademarked but has a different, completely different use? One is a historical place, the other is a product. So you got same name but one totally different kind of uses is— how's that taken into consideration?

For the same company, for your own company, or you're saying to get over another company's use of the same mark?

Carol, go ahead and if you want to respond to that. Carol, if you're talking—

yeah, I can't hear. I'll just go ahead and answer it. I mean, I mean, in either case, if you're trying to get over another company's use of the same mark, but they're using it completely differently for different services or different, just completely different products, you're usually not going to run into a problem. It's, it's It's acceptable to have the same trademark as someone else as long as the goods and services are not overlapping, or they don't cause— the test is whether the trademark is going to cause consumer confusion. So if, as long as you're in completely different industries or completely different areas, that there's not going to be— I wouldn't worry about that for your own trademarks. If you are for your own company, if you are going to expand into another area, your trademark that you tried, trademark application that you file initially is only going to cover whatever goods and services you described in that initial trademark application. So when we file a trademark application initially, we want to try to anticipate what direction our business is going to be headed so we can cover those areas at the outset. If you don't and they come up down the road, then you have to file a new trademark application and then you go through the same process. And there's— I mean, it gets a little bit— it's a little fact-specific, but it's having a name, you know, that you use already, that you already have registered in one area does not guarantee that you're going to be able to get the same mark registered for a different industry or different services. So that's why, that's why you want to have, you want to have good counsel when you're first filing that initial application so you can kind of anticipate that and you don't run into a bind down the road. I hope that answered that, but I can, I cannot, I can address it more if you have questions later on. Okay, so I think we're to— so to the arbitrary category, those are category— that category covers marks that are, um, they don't mean anything with respect to the goods and services that they're used on. So that's, that's your Apple for computers, um, it's also Camel for cigarettes, Oracle for software. They, the, the, um, words have accepted, understood meaning, but they don't mean anything in relation to the goods and services that you're using them on. And then fanciful marks, they get the strongest protection, and those are basically made-up words that have no meaning outside of the product or service that they're used in connection with. So words like Pepsi, Exxon, there's, there's a bunch of them. Some of, some of the really good trademarks that were fanciful to begin with, like Google, um, Kodak— or, well, Kodak is actually a good fanciful one— but, um, Tylenol. Some of the ones that start out really strong end up being generic over time because they were not used consistently as a trademark, and they just started being used in the everyday parlance as to refer to any kind of like, like Tylenol. You know, people tend to refer to everything as Tylenol, whether it's Tylenol brand or a generic brand or anything. So it loses that trademark protection as far as if you wanted to, if you wanted to go after an infringer down the road or take it to court. Okay, let me go to the next slide. Can. Okay, so the general, just generally the— oh shoot, okay. The steps to protect your trademarks is the first step is to pick a good unique trademark, which is what we just discussed. So you want something, you know, that falls farther to the right on that continuum. More, you know, in the field of suggestive, arbitrary, or fanciful, not in the generic or descriptive categories. And then the next step is that you're going to conduct a comprehensive search, and that's something that we can help you with. There's no requirement to have, you know, professional help with that, but you want to make sure it's comprehensive enough and that you don't just limit your search to the USPTO database or something like that, because the— when the trademark process is, you're going to file your application and it's going to go to an examiner at the USPTO and the examiner is going to conduct their own search. And so the way that I like to do it when I help clients is, you know, we always do at least a brief search so that we can anticipate some of what the examiner is going to turn up in their own search and avoid some of those, those problems that are going to come up. The next step is when we're filling out our application is we have to identify goods and services. And I touched on that a little bit, you know, with respect to Carol's question, because you want to identify not only your goods and services that you're currently using, but you want to try to anticipate what direction your business is going. Because once you file your application, you are going to be limited to whatever goods and services you put in that description. So you can always narrow the description as the— during the trademark process, but you're not going to be able to broaden that, broaden it after you file that initial application. So we want to anticipate we can. Then you're going to include all of that in your trademark application, file your trademark application. It gets assigned to an examiner. The examiner is going to conduct their own search, and then they're going to write up an office action or two or three. I mean, we just don't know. There's a back and forth, though, with the Patent Office where You know, they will send us an office action. We will have to respond to the office action and make arguments. If they— if anything shows up in their search and they say, well, this is confusingly similar to these other marks that are out there, we're going to have to make arguments about why they're not confusingly similar and potentially amend our description of goods and services so we get outside of goods that are going to be— or marks that are going to be confusing, you know, with respect to the goods. So we can distinguish it that way if our goods are sufficiently different, even though the marks are the same. Then there's this publication and opposition period where your mark is going to be published in the Gazette, and that allows other companies to oppose your mark if they think it's too similar to their mark. So if it goes through that opposition period, there's no opposition, then you're going to receive a registration at that point. You do— one thing to note is that you can file a trademark application as an intent to use. You don't actually have to be using the mark when you file it. But before it registers, we have to provide evidence of use, meaning you have to show that you are using the mark in connection with the goods and services that you specified in your application. And so once you do that, then you're going to receive registration. And then we want to make sure that you use and designate your mark as a trademark by using the symbols that I had up earlier. The T— it won't be a TM anymore. It will be the R with a circle around it because it'll be a registered trademark at that point. That's going to put people on notice. That you have a registered trademark and hopefully prevent them from infringing. But it'll also— it also provides you with additional protections if there is infringement because it will be deemed willful infringement as long as you are designating your trademark properly. And it also prevents a good trademark from becoming generic, like I mentioned previously. Eric can help. It can help with that anyway. And then you're gonna want to monitor and enforce your trademarks so that you can— so if you, if you are aware of other companies using your trademark and you ignore it, that's a— it's not a good idea because it will dilute your trademark, and then it loses that value over time. So we want to kind of be on guard about other companies monitoring our trademarks. And then there's— then there are some renewal requirements that we just have to satisfy with the USPTO, which we provide evidence that we're still using the trademark in the way that we specified. Over time. So we have to do that. The first time is after— between the 5th and 6th year after we register it, and then between the 9th and 10th year, and then it's every 10 years after that to keep your trademark registered. Then you want to— yeah, you would also— we need to consider international trademark protection. That is if you're going to be going into any other countries. That can be really important, especially China or any of the, you know, your manufacturing in Asia. Your trademark protection is one of the first things you want to consider as a way to prevent counterfeiting and things that we will discuss more in a minute. Okay, so, so turning to patents for a minute. So while we have trademarks that are going to safeguard your brand's identity, and patents protect your innovation, so those would be like the products, processes, or designs that make your product unique and competitive. So why are patents so essential? Well, first, they provide the legal protection for your innovations, which means that no one can legally make, use, or sell your invention without your permission. It gives you control over your creation, and it gives you a monopoly on your innovation for up to 20 years from filing in the case of a utility patent, or 15 years for a design patent. And we'll get into that a little bit more in a minute. The legal protection helps you first to stay ahead of your competitors because it prevents others from copying your innovation so that you maintain the competitive advantage. Next, it helps you increase your market share and your profitability because patents can help establish your brand as a leader in, in the field, and it makes your products more desirable and valuable. It also can create licensing opportunities so that you can generate revenue by licensing your patent to other businesses who wish to utilize your technology without you having to actually produce the product yourself, if you want to go that route. And it also can enhance your brand's reputation because having patented technology or a design signals to your customers that your brand is, innovative and cutting edge, and that's just a way to distinguish yourself and rise to the top. So we typically deal with two types of patents, which I have here on the screen. So the standard patent is a utility patent, and that offers you long-term protection for new and useful products. Machines, processes, and chemical compositions. So to file a patent application requires you to— it requires a set of drawings, first of all. One common misconception with patents is you don't actually have to have a prototype or a working model. You just have to— but you have to have thought through the invention enough that you can come up with a set of detailed drawings and show how the invention is going to be made and, and used, uh, or so that you can describe it in enough detail that it enables a person to make and use the invention. Um, so we're gonna have to file a set of drawings, a detailed description of the invention in terms of the drawings, and then a formal, formal claims that define the scope of your protection. And that's kind of like the meets and bounds of a real property description. It just defines the meets and bounds of your intellectual property or of your innovation. And then the utility patent undergoes the same kind of examination by the USPTO that a trademark does. There's back and forth process. Um, it's a lot more involved, a lot more sophisticated than the trademark process, but it's— and it takes a lot longer and it's more expensive. But other than that, it's similar. So, um, we file the patent application, it's assigned to an examiner. The examiner does their own search, finds similar, you know, patents out there for similar inventions, and then they will reject our patents and, and allow us to respond to the rejections, make arguments. And that process goes— that back and forth process for patents usually takes about 3 years before we get to the point of an issued patent. On trademarks, it's a lot shorter, like 9 to 16 months. I would say 16 months would be at the outer edge. I usually get them within a year. So once the utility patent is granted, that will give you 20 years of protection from the filing date. There's an option to file a provisional patent, which is just kind of a subset of utility patents, which— because it's a temporary, lower-cost application that establishes an early filing date for your invention, but it doesn't actually mature into a protectable patent. It basically just holds your place in line for 12 months. Allows you to mark your invention as patent pending during that time, and so that you can refine your invention, and it also gives you time to seek funding if that's something you're going to do. A provisional patent doesn't have the same formal requirements as a utility patent, so it tends to be cheaper, and it doesn't require an in-depth examination by the USPTO. That That said, there are— you would want to get some advice of counsel before filing a provisional because to get the benefit of your filing date when you convert it to a utility, if it's not disclosed in the provisional patent, you don't get the benefit of that filing date when you convert to a utility for any undisclosed subject matter. A design patent protects the ornamental design of a product. So if your innovation involves a unique shape or appearance or aesthetic design, like the Coke bottle, something like that, a design patent ensures that others can't copy that specific design. So the most critical thing I think I would mention as far as patents is that you need to be really careful about publicly disclosing your invention before you file a patent application. If you publicly share your idea, whether it's at a trade show or in a journal or even online, you could lose the ability to patent it. So in the U.S., you have a 1-year grace period after public disclosure, but in Many other countries, any disclosure before filing can cause you to forfeit your rights. So you want to just, you know, make sure you are well advised before you make any kind of public disclosure and preferably have something on file with the Patent Office. Okay. You guys can jump in and ask any questions if you have any as we go through these. I know it's a lot of material to digest, but I think it's just important to have at least an overview so, you know, as you are, um, you know, um, deciding on a brand and you're developing, growing that brand, that you are also protecting it in a critical in critical ways so you don't run into problems down the road and that can be really expensive to fix and sometimes impossible to fix if you've missed deadlines, for example. Okay, so you want to monitor and enforce your IP rights once you have obtained those protections through the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Internationally, if you are going to do that. So when you've built a successful brand, and I'm sure many of you run into this, then there's competitors and counterfeiters and even unintentional infringers that might try to use your trademarks or copy your inventions or leverage your brand reputation for their gain. And if you don't actively monitor what's going on on the internet or with other filings, you may not even realize this is happening until it's too late and your brand's value, value has already been compromised. This is just an example here of obviously somebody infringing on a well-known trademark for Dove Beauty Bar, and obviously that one would not You might be able to get the wordmark through the Patent Office because it's different than what's out there, but it's obviously an infringement. It's just the whole look and feel. So, so you want to monitor for things like that, for confusingly similar variations of, of your trademark and even inventions that are close to what you have patented that might not be exact because You want to protect that space that you've, that you've made for yourself and your products. So there's various tools and strategies that can help with that. There's IP watch services, there's patent analytics tools, and there are online monitoring tools that can track mentions of your brand on websites and social media platforms and e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon or eBay. So once you've identified infringement, the next step is enforcement. You just want to show that you're serious about protecting your brand, and, and it— by doing that, you can deter future infringement. There's various approaches to enforcement, and they're, they're pretty fact-specific, but a few things to keep in mind is just consistency is key. If you don't actively enforce your rights, then you would risk weakening your brand's protections. And then you want to conduct a cost-benefit analysis as to those approaches because litigation can be expensive, and so it's important to assess whether the infringement is significant enough to justify the cost of legal action. And then as far as international IP strategy, it's if you're going to operate globally or manufacture in a different country, you want to anticipate some of those, the problems you could encounter by doing that and protect your innovations before you do that. There are— so with the rise of e-commerce and global online platforms like Amazon and eBay and Ali Baba, it's made it easier than ever for counterfeiters and infringers to misuse your IP. And so products that can mimic your brand can be sold online in minutes, and it's usually at a lower price and it's lower quality, and it can damage your brand's reputation and undercut your market. So most of these platforms, especially I deal with Amazon all the time, but they have, they have cost-effective IP takedown processes that allow you to request the removal of infringing content, and they can— you can enforce your rights quickly and efficiently. So I highly recommend looking into those if you're on— if you're an Amazon seller. There's Amazon's APEX, which is Amazon Patent Evaluation Express system, and that can resolve patent disputes within a couple of months and prevent infringing products from staying on the market, which, you know, would harm— could harm your sales and your brand reputation. So I think that's about all that I have for today. But I mean, there's just, as you can probably tell, there are a lot of complexities, and it all is pretty that specific, I'd be happy to talk to anybody if you have specific questions.

Okay, well, thank you, Alexis. Appreciate the presentation, insightful insights and information about protecting your brand. And we hope you all found value in today's webinar. We will be sending out a recording along with some PDFs of the materials. So appreciate you guys joining today, and we'll talk later. Bye.