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STARTING A BUSINESS: Questions about trademarking, copywriting, patents etc....


DOOD

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STARTING A BUSINESS: Questions about trademarking, copyrights, patents etc....

 

I know everyone on here has had an idea about starting a busisness or clothing line or resturant etc...well so have I...i currently am seriously contemplating starting a clothing and have been researching it for about a month or to now and have become overwhelmed with all the legal stuff that is needed and how much it costs to trademark or copywright your business.

 

Have any of you been through this process?

 

Have any of you skipped the trademarking and copywirting?

 

Please post your knowledge and experienc on the topic....this could be of help to many of us wanna be entrepenuers out there.......

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i own my own shit. the legal fee's are big, i am lucky enough to have a good friend who is an attorney so i get a hook up.

 

all of my shit is trademarked.

 

i believe that there is a government site where you can check to see if names are already taken or pending, or even abandoned. thats a start

 

then you can do the good old "poor man's copyright"

 

that is when you take your idea, and i personally would be as detailed as possible about every thing. type it out, include logos, designs and all of that good stuff. certify mail it to yourself BUT DO NOT OPEN IT when you get it. keep it in a safe place. This may help you if you ever got in a legal bind (someone jacking your idea or name). This should hold up in court, and it will be dated and all of that.

 

try that in the mean time till you can get yourself set up legit.

 

form an LLC or a LLP (limited liability corperation/partnership) you may want an attorney for all of the legal work.

 

that way you can never be personally sued or the such.

 

then get your shit trademarked or whatever. i think the fee's are like $250. or $300. not including the attorney fee.

 

but my best advice is this:

 

1. MAKE SURE you have a sound business plan from every angle!

 

2. MAKE SURE all of your parntners are on the same page as you, and are down for the long haul because shit doesn't happen over night, if at all!

 

3. HAVE CAPITOL!!! $$$$$$$$$ W/O this you should not even bother!

 

I went the route of Kevin Smith for my capitol, since my investor dicked me over hard! charge cards and personal loans up the ass!

 

good luck

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simply making a product means it's copyrighted... the biggest legal hurdle you need to worry about is probably the declaration of a ficticious name... it's where you officially declare what you business name is, what you intend to do to make money and who you actually are... you usually have to pay a fee and run an ad in the paper for a week...

 

After that you just do what you do and you should be pretty much protected...

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Oh, I'm sorry... apparently these days I need to provide more facts so... My father took a picture of somebody, the picture was in Sailing magazine or some boat rag and later, somebody took that picture and did a line drawing from it. My father submitted a bill and it was paid. Any work you can show the 'creation' of OWNS ALL derivative work...

 

*to a point, the 'new' work must be at last 35% different from the original, and that means DIRECTLY different, you can't take a picture and add a bunch of butterflies or something and call it 'new'... you have to modify the original by "35%" or you're/they're stealing

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i like the envolope idea..if that really works..im down for that for the time being...cuz i dont have anywhere near the kind of money needed to trademark somethin for real...i went to the official govennment site for United States Patent and Trademark Office and searched on thereto see if my name was taken...and nothing came up...but i dont know if i trust that ..and i heard it wasnt really up to date...so i dont know about that site....if there are any other useful websites...post em up!

 

gooch...what do you own? got a website id like to see some stuff that you got trademarked and what not.

 

if anyone else has anything they are workin on for a business type deal goin on..post your website...on here

 

any of yall wanna hit me up on AIM to talk more about this...i got lots of questions... AIM: nimmey123

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Originally posted by LENS

I got this from good advice that the whole "mail yourself your shit" doesn't work anymore. You have to go through official channels now for copyrights.

 

no you don't... mail it to yourself is just as good for etablishing copyright as ever... I think you guys are confusing this with patent law...

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taken strait from www.copyright.gov faq section

 

I’ve heard about a “poor man’s copyright.” What is it?

The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a “poor man’s copyright.” There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.

 

not sure what that really means

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Originally posted by DOOD

The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a “poor man’s copyright.” There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.

 

 

it means these people are uninformed... for real, it's called a 'poor man's patent' and is based upon a mchine or method of accomplishing something... a COPYRIGHT is inherent in the work as created, ANY artistic work, be it visual, auditory or literary...

 

fuck the FAQ's section... if you don't believe me, look into copyright law...

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i may have had the incorrect name for the what i believe is a slang term for that process. i never said that it was just as good as taking the proper routes, what i was suggesting was: use that technique in the mean time till you are able to do things the proper way. i do know that it will hold up in court as proof of some sort. again i wouldn't base my business ideas on that method, which is why i followed the proper channels, but again this is costly and i happen to be lucky enough to have a hook up.

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right, and what I'm sayin is... what you're thinking of is a patent process... copyright is inherent in the work... trademarks must be registered but any SELF copyrighted material may be used as a trade mark, though you might have to argue it in court later if someone takes your style... but any continuous use of an original logo or symbol automatically 'trademarks' it...(PLUS 50 years or so of disuse)

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I know I'm right on this, Read - "Buisness In Action" by Courtland L. Bovee (just an economical and buisness overview of the market today), then "Principles of Macroeconomics" by Karl E. Case, then if you wanna really wanna get ahead of the game get into several MicroEconomics titles. You cannot, and I mean cannot fail if you understand the principles discussed in these subjects. There is a lot of money out there, everyone with common sense on this board could easily by a millionare, possibly a few times over. Success is never impossible, money makes the world go round, - A white child from the rat race known as college. Trust me on this, a company is not a fucking joke, its a responsibility and with a detailed understanding of the marketplace you cannot Cannot fail. Damn I'm money hungry, peace

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From what I understand....I could be wrong.

There are two forms of trade marks. That is why

some companies use TM and others use ®. TM

stands for a common law trade mark. A common

law trade mark goes in to effect once goods with

that mark cross state lines in commerce. Someone

else could register the name a year later but if you

can proove that you used the mark first in interstate

commerce you will prevail in court. ® stands for

Registered trade mark, meaning the mark is

officially registered with the government. However, anyone can still challenge your ownership to a trade

mark even if it is registered.

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Each State is a little bit different

 

When it comes to establishing a business. You could set up a "sole proprietorship" business, but that means you are still liable for any lawsuits and all that shit personally. Let's say you started up a tree-trimming business. You're all happy, making those big bucks cutting down trees in people's back yards, and then charging them to haul the wood away in your truck, and the selling the wood for firewood! You're kicking ass and loving it. No boss. No regular timeclock bullshit. Paid in cash. Life is great.

Then, you cut down a tree, and the sonofabitch defies gravity, and falls the wrong way and crushes Mr. Customer's new Jaguar like a steel pancake. Fuck! And you don't have any insurance.

 

Now Mr. Customer sues the shit out of you, and gets everything you own, plus an outstanding judgement against all future earnings until he gets his $60,000 back. You're fucked. And worse, if you live in a "garnishee" state, he can garnishee all your wages from ANY job that you get. (Move to Texas. No garnishee laws here, by God. Mr. Customer will have to do more than file some pussy lawsuit to get his $60,000 in Texas.)

 

When the fucker sues you, it brings the fact that you are getting paid in cash to the attention of the State tax authorities in the Secretary of State's office. Oops! Now they want the taxes on the cash you got paid. And so does the IRS--they want their Federal income tax, plus penalties.

 

You could have avoided all this shit if you incorporated your business, but corporations pay MUCH higher taxes than individuals or partnerships do. Buy business insurance. If you get paid cash, PUT THE TAX MONEY ASIDE. When you calculate a job, don't forget the state sales tax (8-1/2% in Harris County, Texas) and add on an extra 23% for Federal income tax. Of course, all this legal bullshit runs your price way the fuck up there, and makes it hard to get work unless you take it in the shorts on your end and work cheap. And, of course, you are competing with people who are economically desparate, and willing to practically work for nothing.

 

If you are going to go "legit", go all the way legit. And if you are going to go "black market" (I don't recommend this) go "all the way black market." Keep in mind--cheating the Government out of their tax money might earn you a room with a view in Atlanta.

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My Guess

 

is that unless your clothing line gets to be mad popular, your biggest problem is going to be marketing it. The big guys aren't going to bother ripping off your ideas unless they become extremely popular.

 

I produced some baseball caps that I was selling (I wanted a ball cap that said "SP" for Southern Pacific in black and red, with white letters, sort of replicating the colors on SP units.) I found a guy with a small company that does custom embroidery with computer-controlled sewing machines, and all sorts of custom shit like that. His company is in his garage, behind his house. He has to hide it, because his neighbors are all pissed that he has a company in his house.

 

He puts in about twelve hours a day, but he's his own boss. One thing he produces is labels for small custom clothing lines. One of his customers is a 16-year old kid that started his own blue jeans company. He liked those big huge blue jeans, with big-ass legs and a hammer loop and all kinds of fuckin' pockets for shit like rulers and carpentry tools. He couldn't find any like he wanted. So his Mom made him a pair, but it was a big hassle. As soon as he wore them to school, everybody wanted a pair. They asked his Mom if she would make them a pair, too. She said it was too much hassle. So the kid started a blue jeans company, hired a couple of seamstresses, used his Mom's home-made patterns cut out of newspaper for the first few pairs. His first few customers were kids at school, but then he started making lots of jeans and shopping them around at boutiques and music stores, places like that. "Jungle City Jeans Company." He makes those hip-hop blue jeans with legs about three feet wide, LOL.

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