The #1 Mistake That Costs Black Entrepreneurs Their Brands

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1:21I, um, I can't stop scratching my downtown. Yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown, some things you'd rather type than say out loud. There's no question too embarrassing for Amazon Health AI. Chat your symptoms and get virtual care 24-7. Healthcare just got less painful. If your best finance people are doing expense reports, chasing receipts, or spending time on month-end clothes, it's time to get Brex AF, a Gentic finance that eliminates that work before it starts. Learn more at brecks.com slash AF. So I got to ask you some business questions, some legal questions.

2:05I know we had Julian Brown. His episode went really viral. And one clip went really, really viral where he said, it's a mistake to try to patent something. Because if you patent something, then it goes on the registry. And pretty much it's just open source for people to steal your ideas. Big companies can take it. They can sue you. so he advised people not to patent. Yeah. So let me say this. So there's four different types of intellectual property, right? So a trade secret will last as long as it's a secret. A patent only lasts for 20 years, but a trademark will last as long as you use it, you will not lose it.

2:45I'm a trademark attorney, right? And so Coca-Cola has been registered since 1893. Mercedes-Benz registered since 1903. So what I will tell people is don't allow people to trick you out of your greatness and tell you that a trademark is not necessary. Now, what Julian was talking about, and I actually met Julian at InvestFest. What he was talking about is a smart and it's a strategic move, but also what I would encourage Julian, because he said he spoke to some um ceo that was i think he was the founder or the inventor of the um something um serious something he he referenced the guy in the interview what i would say is is that julian should probably talk to someone like mr lonnie johnson mr lonnie johnson is an inventor um that works for nasa who is a black inventor right he invented the super soka and he actually won multi-million dollar lawsuits because people infringe on his patent.

3:46And so again, sometimes we don't, I understand his thought process behind it because when you do apply for a patent, all of your information is not a secret anymore, right? And so you do want to, you know, talk through to see what's your better options because I always tell people the law is not a one size fit all garment. What may have been best for them may not be best for you depending on the technology. you want to just talk to people and you might not have to disclose all proprietary things. Also, I would say talk to patent attorneys who are looking out for your best interest. You know what I'm saying?

4:20I know a few of them if he needs that, but it depends. It really just depends. But as far as Mr. Lonnie Johnson, who is a black inventor who worked at NASA, who had a registered patent on the Super SoCo and who has benefited, I would say that's probably somebody he would want to get his guidance from because he's been through it and been through the process another thing i would say is because he did talk about like fighting these big companies when it comes to infringement and things like that but what they don't tell you is there's actually um intellectual property investors that will invest in your lawsuit they like these are hedge fund guys and so all they do is invest in lawsuits if they feel like the probability of you winning is a big chance, right?

5:07So I see too many times where they try to trick us, us, right, out of our greatness and tell us not to secure our intellectual property. But when you have intellectual property, when you have assets, real estate, like your portfolio can be so much bigger and so much valuable. So I would just say, just be careful who you get your advice from and talk to people more so that been through it that look more like you because there's a lot of people out here that are trying to trick us out of our greatness. I appreciate that. Now, you talked about being with us since day one. Congratulations to you. I don't want that to go over our heads.

5:45You said 6 ,000 clients. That's a lot. That's a lot. So talk about scaling in this environment. Obviously, it's tough out here for a lot of people, but your business is scaling at a time like this. I wonder, number one, how you've gone about that, right? because sometimes they say don't scale too fast. The other part is we talk about technology here all the time. Has AI been a part of that scalability? And if so, how have you been using it? Yeah, so for me, I've been trying to use AI very responsibly. Like I'm a CEO, so I want to be smart about things. I don't want to be the CEO like Blockbuster and blockbuster myself out of business and not pay attention to what's trending and what's happening.

6:31but I do want to be conscious about it. I'm in the state of Georgia. I've been here since 2017. And Georgia has some of the... Well, we have... This is the state with the most data centers. And people are complaining about high electricity and things like... So I'm trying to be also conscious about the situation. Also too, I just believe if we... There's a lot of CEOs that want to replace their workforce with ai technology but if we replace the workforce then how can the people create revenue to actually consume the product right so what i have done with my team is i asked i went to them and i said how do you think ai can help you i'm not a ceo trying to figure out how can i use ai to replace my team but how can i create how can they use it to benefit them so that we can have a more efficient process so the client experience is better.

7:27Because right now, truth be told, like a fourth of our clients, they either tried to file their trademark themselves. And at one point they went through, you know, all these other, you know, internet data companies. But now lately, the biggest call we've been getting is, you know, I did my trademark with ChatGPT and now I got an office action and I can't figure it out. Right. And so what I would tell entrepreneurs is like, yeah, you want to understand it. You want to understand how to utilize it in your marketplace, but also be willing to invest in your business and your brand so that you stand out.

8:00So people like AI is no competition for me. Like I, you know, I've been ranked number eight out of over 33 ,000 trademark attorneys in this country. My law firm is in the top 50 out of for the past seven years because I do great work. And also too, we got people here that really, we just care. You know, we care about our clients. We care about their goals. Even if they can't afford to do all these trademarks at one time, right, we're able to say, okay, well, let's work on a plan to do it in this way. So we use it in a way slightly, but consciously to help us enhance our process. But as a CEO, I'm not utilizing it to replace my team, if that makes sense.

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10:47That's framer.com slash earn for 30 % off. Framer.com slash earn. Rules and restrictions may apply. If your best finance people are doing expense reports, chasing receipts, or spending time on month-end close, it's time to get Brex AF, a gentic finance that eliminates that work before it starts. Learn more at brex.com slash AF. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile, with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just$15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird.

11:26Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at MintMobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three month plan, equivalent to$15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only. Then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at MintMobile.com. I got you. You said something very important earlier. What are like two or three ways you will know if an attorney is looking out for your best interest versus their own? Yeah, so that's a really good question. and what i would say is just always question where the ownership lies right because um i used to work in entertainment industry and i came in in 2013 where you know at this time everything was shifted from cds to mp3s and things like that and i'm looking at certain contracts where they still got breakage calls in the contracts and you got to have a that's willing to push back on that status quo, right?

12:26And tell you like, and point these type of things out, because why do we have a breakage clause in a contract if we not shipping CDs or record players? And like, why are you going to charge me a 10 % advance for that, right? So you always want to question, where does the ownership lies? Like I look at a lot of our celebrities and a lot of times they're being fired from projects that they created on their own. And it's like, well, what was, who was that attorney that was sitting on the side of you to allow you not to even own part of your project so the people across from you to actually find you from something you created.

13:01So now you got a question to ask yourself, are they really sitting here on the side of you to represent you? Or is it a best, is it an interest on that other side of the table for them? So you get, like, even if you don't really understand how to digest contracts and things like that, you got to just, I would say, start with asking where does the ownership lies? And if they have a problem with that and that's cool everybody don't want to be owners but at least let's be some partners that way you can't just oust me you know on a sit like kanye kanye did it so well people i'm from chicago so you know i gotta get midwest yes i gotta give it to him because you know the the biggest thing that kanye knew that was important was owning the name right and so when he knew okay if i own yeezy If they fire me, they're going to lose something too because I take the name with me and it goes with me.

13:52So I would just say when you're talking to different advisors and counselors, you know, push back and question those things. And if you don't feel comfortable with those answers, get a second or third opinion because you never want to be locked down, especially in a contract where there's a 20 year term or 30 year term and you locked into it and you don't fully understand it. So would you advise people to use ChatGPT or use AI to read the contract so they can understand it? So I would advise you get an attorney. Here's why. I use ChatGPT for certain things, right? Because I'm not the best marketer, right?

14:31But I also know how to push back. For instance, lawyers are not supposed to pay referral fees. Lawyers, dentists, doctors, right? We're not supposed to pay referral fees. In the event you pay a referral fee, you could be disbarred to a non-practicing professional or a non-practicing attorney. I'm going to chat and I'm talking about a marketing initiative and chat like, well, Rosina, you should just do a marketing initiative where you do a referral program where you can pay people. And I'm like, well, chat, according to the ABA rule, American Bar rule, I can't pay. So if you don't know that, right, because AI is still learning itself, right?

15:09And AI is pulling data from every single person. If they don't, it's kind of like the blind leading the blind, if that makes sense. Now, I'll tell you, I redecorated my office and redecorated my front room using, you know, AI and things like that. But for things that it revolves around your business and your ownership and things like that, you still want to have, you know, just a guiding principle. Because if I had not cited that law to it and I didn't know any better, I could have just ran with it and that's what we're seeing right now where a lot of people have utilized ai to file these applications and now it's wrong and now they got to pay us to either come in and fix it or now we got to file it all over again because it's just wrong to begin with the the trademarking thing is pretty interesting and something that people should learn especially like if you are a vendor and if you have a brand talk about the different categories and what how many categories should you be trademarking your brand, i.e.

16:10your clothing line? Because until you try to do it, you don't realize that there might be 20 different things that you could be using your name for. You might want to use it later. Do you want to protect yourself and get as many categories as possible or is it category specific? And then the other piece is, do we start looking at it from an international standpoint, depending on the size of the business? How should we go about that? That's a great question. So there are 45 different classes under trademark law. So one through 34 is products, so goods. And then 35 through 45 is services, right?

16:44And so if let's say, for instance, you are a podcaster and you're educating people on investing, right? And so then you want to also, you launch an investment app, like teaching them and guiding them on investing principles that may be two classes that you may fall under also too um for apparel if you're going to launch a apparel line under that brand that's also a third class that you need to file under now let's say you're going to go to china to get those goods actually produce um the apparel line now under the u.s u.s is a first to use jurisdiction but china is the first to file jurisdiction so i tell clients before you even go and do business in china because it's a different country in a foreign country you got to understand the laws and before you even develop that manufacturing relationship with your manufacturer file the trademark first why because it's a first to foul and we have seen situations where clients in the u.s have went to china you know had products manufactured through china and what happened is is the the deal falls apart or the manufacturer is somehow so they filed the trademark in china so now they're reproducing and this is how a lot of counterfeits are created and things like that now you can file your trademark in the u.s and you can file with u.s customs border patrol to try to keep some of that stuff out of the U.S.

18:14But it's just best to have that protection there in here because now you can go to the Chinese government and have those rights enforced over there. But if they filed it first, it becomes harder. And those 45 different classes, they apply internationally to all different countries, all the countries. Gotcha. For entrepreneurs and creatives, do you think they should trademark before they have traction or do you think they should get a little bit of traction and then file for the trademark i know you get this a lot but for the audience so i would ask you would you build a house on lane you don't own that's a great conversation no no so if you're not if you play a house with your business then yeah go go try to get some traction but in this day and age where social media we got the internet we can't if you're not, if you're in this with this business and you're about to invest your time, your money and your resources, you need to secure the brand first.

19:14Why? Because so many brands can go viral so quick, right? And now under the law, if your brand goes viral really fast and what the government can say is it fails to function as a trademark because it actually can't, you can't identify who the source is because it took off so fast and it's so rapid right so like that big case where they were saying like those two guys trademark white lives matter and kanye not going to be able to use it like any real lawyer who took trademark 101 knows that was just a lot that whole story was a lot why because black lives matter is not a trademark it can't be trademarked why because the government had already said it failed to function as a trademark so you the black lives matter can't be registered we know white lives can't be registered white lives matter can't be registered as well and plus kanye actually and it's not something i agree with but he used it first right because the us is a youth base now here's the thing you could do your business and it could go viral like mr tendonism and things like that and because you have first usage you can prove that you filed it first but then it's going to cost you 25 times as much to file what we call an opposition to the application that was filed before yours in order to prove that you were the first user and you would um and you will have the burden of proof to show that you were the first user so that's why i just tell people if you're serious about the business you know this is something you're and if you're about to invest more than you know what the trademark costs anyway you might as well just protect it because you're protecting your best investment.

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